Post navigation

More Silhouette Cameo Problems and Solutions

One of my readers is ready to pull her hair out in frustration over the problems she’s having with her Cameo. Sound familiar? So, I thought I would share the note she wrote to me and my response to her. Hopefully, it will help some of you who may also be experiencing problems with your Cameos. If you have any other ideas or solutions that might also help, please leave a comment so we can all learn, together.

The reader said: “So, I just bought the cameo, and I am so upset. I bought it for some big projects coming up and the mat is slipping everywhere. The glue on the mat is so strong that my paper sticks to it each time and tears up when I try to remove it. On top of that, It wont cut through, the mat slides all around and even when I try to adjust the rollers, the one on the right wont move. It is in the grove so tight that it wont come out to slide it over. when i adjusted the settings, it cut straight through my mat and it scratched it. i initially bought it so i could make rhinestone names on shirts but now, I cant even get it to cut through vinyl, let alone something else. Help”

My response: Hi, I just read the comment you left on my blog, Globug Ideas, and I can really feel your frustration. I decided to write to you, one-on-one, to help you find a quick solution.

I had all the same issues with my Cameo. Thankfully, there are solutions.

Cutting mat too sticky:

After a few uses, it loses a lot of its stickiness and you may even find it’s not sticky enough…but there’s a solution for that, too. However, Silhouette America should be including some basic tools to help users remove the cut-outs from the mat. I bought a little kit at Walmart for $10. It’s the one for the Cricut, but it’s the exact same tools you will need for your Cameo. In the kit there is a little spatula which you slide under delicate cut-outs for easy removal…without tearing! The kit also includes a few other tools that you will also find useful.

Mat sliding around:

The Cameo is pre-set at the factory for the 12-inch cutting mat. You can change the width of the rollers by flipping the little blue handle on the right side of the roller bar. When the blue handle is in the down position, it allows you to slide the white roller toward the left so you can smaller sized media. Once you have the white roller set where you want it, be sure to push the blue handle back up—this locks the bar in place so that your cutting mat (or vinyl) won’t slip around. As a note, however, you can use smaller pieces of paper on the 12-inch cutting mat without adjusting the rollers. For example, sometimes I just want to cut out one bird image or a name. In this case, you would just use the settings in the software to choose the paper size.

You mentioned that you adjusted the settings. The setting for the blade should rarely be used at higher than 2 or 3 for cardstock. For vinyl, the blade should be set at 1, speed at 9, thickness at 8. For regular 80-pound cardstock, such as Stampin’ Up Whisper White, the blade should be set at 3, speed at 3, thickness at 33. Works perfect every time.

When the blade is set higher than needed, the tip of the blade chips. Once the blade is chipped, it will no longer cut. The only solution is to buy a new blade. Silhouette American doesn’t do a good job of explaining all the little ins and outs of using the Cameo, and hundreds of my readers have had this experience. It happened to me, too.

So, the good news is that all of your problems can be fixed. The bad news is that you will have to get a new blade. Call Silhouette America and explain your problems. I spoke with them on several occasions and they sent me a new mat and a new blade. In fact, over a period of a couple of months, they sent me three new blades, until finally, one of their support staff explained to me about the blade settings. Since then, I have not set my blade above 3 (3 is the perfect setting for heavy cardstock).

440 thoughts on “More Silhouette Cameo Problems and Solutions”

Every time I try to use PixScan and import a .jpeg image into Silhouette Studio, I get a message stating that the image will not calibrate or the resolution is too low. I changed the resolution but I am still getting the calibrate message, anyone else experience this and have a fix?

Help!! So long story short my Silhouette Portrait fell off my desk. It turns on but it will do nothing else. It won’t load a mat, it won’t cut, NOTHING. It only turns on. I have a bunch of orders and I need help fast. After searching the internet, it seems as if I’m the only one this has happened to. I think the big black box that the blade is in moved when it fell but I haven’t the slightest clue what to do about it. Please help!!! 🙁

I am 100% starting to HATE my Cameo! I have owned it for 5 years. No problems. It’s been through Win 7, Win 8 and Win 10 (all with the same PC). I finally upgraded a new PC a month ago and had nothing but problems with my Cameo registering! I even went out and purchased a new printer, in hopes the “default” printer issue I’ve been having with the Cameo would be solved with putting the printer on the network. Nope. Cameo is still not being detected 95% of the time! I’ve tried everything. And by everything, I mean EVERYTHING. Even attempting to follow through with every.single.step that Silhouette customer service had sent me. Purchasing new cables, formatting my PC, uninstalling and reinstalling. Reading forums, etc. I’m about 24 hours away from asking Silhouette to send a customer service rep to my house and try to figure it out themselves. Compatible with Win 10 my BUTT. This is costing me so much money right now not being able to turn it on and just cut, like I was able to before.

Help! My silhouette studio designer edition plus will not load. It simply stays on the loading icons screen and goes into the millions!!! It was working fine, the computer updated and now I cannot get it up and going again! I even tried to reinstall the program but nothing is working, even resetting my computer to a working configuration. I still haven’t heard anything from silhouette. Any and all assistance will be greatly appreciated!

I am having this same issue. It was working fine 2 days ago and next morning I tried to open it up and continually loading icons. I was unable to use my machine for 3 months due to another issue with loading. They have horrible customer support hours for something technology related. I emailed them twice with no response. Finally was able to talk with someone on the phone. I downloaded an update. Worked for 3 weeks, now this!!!! Pretty close to being fed up!!.
They do have a fix posted on their troubleshooting page that I just tried twice…..no luck!!!

Did you ever figure this out? I have an HTV emergency project and of course mine is doing this exact think. I tried all their trouble shooting advice 20 times already and completely uninstalled and reinstalled the program and it’s STILL saying the same “loading icons” thing going up to millions, too! UGH!

I HATE THIS MACHINE!!!! Received the Cameo 3 for Christmas. Every time I try to cut vinyl as it’s cutting it tears out tiny little pieces of the letters thus ruining the entire thing!!! I really wanted a different brand just because local classes were available where there are NO classes available except online for this machine. I have no idea what I am doing wrong or if it’s the machine. I have watched so many videos my head hurts! I’ve only done ONE thing on it that has turned out correctly – ready to put it back in the box and return it!!

AGH! I truly hate this software, Everything working fine. Today I turn it on and I can;t resize anything with out clicking on it several times and then clicking off of the mat several times. can’t move or group or anything with out doing the same thing! Sil help is of no help and has no answers. Just to be sure I wasn’t losing my mind I bought a new computer and download and the same thing is happening!

I am having several problems with my Cameo 2 but it was working until today. Now it won’t load. I’ve uninstalled, reinstalled, downloaded the updates, everything but it still won’t load. I haven’t had it a year yet. I’ve had other issue too, but I can’t fix anything until it loads.

I bought a new cameo 3 then had to buy a new computer because it won’t take the lesser versions of Windows, new mats, new blades, tons of goodies and a card for the designer edition, and what’s happening??? the machine won’t start. When I try and upgrade my settings I can’t because the machine tells me it can’t connect and whatever I am doing it won’t recognize the machine is turned on!! Now, what…tons of money, tons of hair pulling moments and I can’t even get the machine to say “Welcome”. HELP Also, what is weird is before I bought the new computer, Cameo welcomed me each time I turned it on even though I couldn’t use it because of insufficient hard drive…or so it said.

I just bought the Cameo 3. I followed the instructions step by step to set up. Everything went along fine, except when I tried to look in the library. Nothing is there. Now it keeps telling me to plug it in. Do I have to do this all over again?
Also this was done on my desktop. Even though I registered it on the desktop, can I download it again a a new laptop?

I am very frustrated with this setup. I’ve already packed it up 3 times to return it, but I am giving this one more try.

I’m having this exact same issue!!!! Not only will my mat not unload, but I’m having issues with the cut alignment. Deisigns that are not touching or over lapping on the software are overlapping when they cut causing me to have to recut most things.

Oh my goodness, I need HELP! I have a brand new Cameo 3 and I have been trying AL DAY to get it to work. I am trying to use the stencil vinyl to do an etched glass project also my 1st project with this machine. There were no instructions on how to use it other than the basics, install software etc.
I have adjusted the rollers, I googled how to do that. I have added registration marks in my design, googled that too. I have the cut lines set to (cut) and also a depth set on the line around the text. Registration failed. I can see that because I did not print on the vinyl in my inkjet printer so of course the marks will not show up on the vinyl. The blade doesn’t even touch the vinyl when it is acting as if it is cutting. What do I do? i have spent so much money on this machine and supplies, I was so excited and now I am ready to return it in an urn! I wonder if a cricut would have been better with more instructions and easier to use. I bought the etched glass kit and the dvd was absolutely ridiculous.

I’m in agreement with you. Just took my Cameo 3 out of the box. Can’t get the firmware to update. Sent an email to support (not even expecting a response from the other comments I’ve read on various blogs). STRONGLY considering returning for a cricut!

I want to ask about the use of the machine silhouette cameo, I have a big problem, when I make cuts of lightning had struck very strongly that goes electric my home, suddenly the machines cameo I can not on so well now, did suffer damage to the engine cameo or problems in power supply? two shit that makes me dizzy.
power supply or camo machine in question. important

i just bought my cameo 3 , while updating the firmware it froze for almost 5hours decided to shutdown it did not hence i removed the power code. Therefore it wont turn back on only by holding the power button and plug in the the power cord but only blue light screen appears . i cant even repeat the process as the pc is not recognizing it anymore

Solution for the silhouette group :
Thank you for your alerted concern. Please perform the following steps to manually re-update the machine and correct the concern:

Save the following file to your desktop: send2cutter.zip
Unzip this file to your desktop
This file contains the following:
– InstallDriver.exe (installs a driver to allow manual sending of firmware updates)
-send2cutter.exe (program to send manual updates)
– CAMEO3EXT_V120.bin (firmware update file)
– CAMEO3_V120.bin (firmware update file)
Run the InstallDriver.exe program by double-clicking the file
Follow any on screen prompts to allow the program and proceed
Once finished, hold down power button on CAMEO 3 and plug in power adapter to the CAMEO 3. You will need to hold down power button until a light blue screen is shown.
Run send2cutter.exe application
Ensure Output field is set to CAMEO 3 (or may read as “CAMEO 2”; just ensure that the CAMEO 3 is the only connected Silhouette unit to the computer and it will display according to what it finds)
Select All Files under Files of Type field
Navigate to where you have saved the CAMEO3EXT_V120.bin file on your computer and select it
Press the Send button. The update process may take up to 10 minutes.
Once LCD on CAMEO 3 displays dark blue, the process is completed. Unplug the power from the CAMEO 3.
Repeat steps 1 – 9 substituting CAMEO3_V120.bin on step 7 (this should go much quicker)
Once all steps are completed, please go to your computer’s Control Panel > Printers section and remove the CAMEO 3 driver that was installed.

Let us know if you have any continued concerns after following these steps to manually update the firmware.

“Write down ur mails will send u the unzip file , i dont know where to upload it so that u can easily download them if any one knows share the idea so i can upload the zip file tx.”

Same here mines is stuck on the blue screen no words or anything. The exact thing that happen to the lady above with it taking so long soon as I set up unplugging etc everything she stated happened to me now it’s just stuck on blue screen and I have a MAC should I follow those exact steps???

Not sure if you still running this page or not. I have wrote you on here, Facebook, and youtube and Now answer back.
We all having the same problem with the blue screen and if you have the file to reprogram our system, we sure would appreciate you helping us out where we can get our cameos back running. Thank you.

I got my cameo a few weeks ago to cut out stickers and it worked perfectly fine. This past weekend I used with the print and cut feature as always, but this time is would’nt automatically look for registration marks. As always, I had them printed on the page and my cuts selected but it just said the cut was automatically complete. I got around this by in silhouette studio id click cut, then wait for it to fail then click “register” and wait for that to fail, and then click “register automatically” but when I do this sometimes it still wont cut properly and my machine has the “failed to register” message on the screen while its cutting. Has this happened to anyone?

i just bought a cameo 3 . im a total newbie, so installing software etc, i get to the firmwire part, decide to check if it needs updating, i was just following the sequence of things to do. So tried updating firmwire, hada message after 5 mins saying failed and contact support, not the machine is stuck , frozen has a blue screen when turned on, can only turn it on or off by the plug. nothing on screen exceptit blue

I have a number of problems with my cameo
1 I can’t seem to get the settings right for the cutter, speed, depth and pressure when I use the recommended settings on cardstock it wont cut right through.
2 When it cuts it will do long straight lines but when it has to turn corners particularly on angles less then 90 degrees it catches and pulls the card into a lump so that I cannot use for any fine design.
Your comments suggestions would be appreciated

Hi, my name is Kourtney and i had just bought a cut from the silhouette store and from then on out every time i open my silhouette cameo is says something about how “Am error has occurred. Sending an automatically generated error report will help Silhouette resolve the problem.” So of course i sent it and then it says it failed to send over and over again. And now nothing on my account wont work its like it is frozen. So what do i do???

Hi I just purchased sketch pens for my Silhouette Cameo 2. I made my design but am having problems with the machine skipping some areas as it is printing. The sketching pens are not printing through the whole design. What am I doing wrong and why would it skip spots.

I have exactly the same issue, I’ve even tried rubbing my anti-static bag over the paper as I would for heat embossing but still no success. If anyone has any remedies I would be most grateful to hear them

I had this problem. Wouldn’t cut in certain areas either especially the top left. Anyway I sold it (bought it used anyway) and got a cameo 2. I sold it as spares and messaged the guy who bought it and asked out of curiosity if he fixed it. He had. The box that carries the blade wasn’t putting enough pressure on in parts so he took the casing off and put a piece of foam in and it worked a treat. There’s a video on YouTube. But if it’s still in warranty get it sent back. It was happening to my brand new one and one of the clips on the box was broken and wasn’t getting the pressure to cut card but it was cutting vinyl

Help! I have the free 100 designs and I have bought 12 other ones. Each and every time I buy one or get the free of the week, the designs do not show up in my library. I have to go through the steps of deleting the silhouette, emptying the recycling bin, go to the downloaded purchases and recovering all again. What in the world am I doing wrong that this happens to me everytime???

A few months ago 4 exactly buy my cameo in Colombia , where it is still uncommon and few days ago has struggled consisting of marking the paper but fails to cut it completely , I tried changing the blade , adjusting the options section and nothing has me worked … if anyone can help me I would appreciate forever …

Check that the white box that the blade clips into is clipped in properly. The casing just clips off and my new one cut vinyl but just scratched the paper even on maximum settings. One.of the clips on the box was snapped therefore it wasn’t putting enough pressure on. But it may just not be clipped on tightly. It’s the top part that clips off

Hi My cameo has been working fine until recently.
When my cut is complete the cameo used to stop and I pressed the key to unload.
Now when the cut stops the mat is getting drawn in the opposite direction without pressing any thing then I have to turn off the power and manually take it bout the back end
HELP please

My problem is similar – new machine used a few times. I went to use it tonight and when it finishes it unloads towards the back and it takes several pushes of the unload button to get out. Weird behavior, also on a setting of 3 it cuts through the material (vinyl iron on transfer) and on 2 it doesnt cut through, it barely scores it. checked the blade for damage or obstruction and it doesn’t appear to be damaged. This worked as expected 2 days ago. weird.

Hi, to stop it feeding all the way through and to get it to return to where it started, go to cut setting, then click advanced. There is an option there to either return to origin or feed. Select return to origin 🙂

My husband gave me my first CAMEO SILHOUETTE for my birthday… and I was so excited to start using it… BUT I am Ready to return this thing and Get my money back!!! which I am so sad about 🙁

I have bought Images on the Silhouette studio and have been able to cut them right.. however when It comes to weeding is HELL!! I have watch tutorials and I’ve seen that as soon as they cut the words all they do is peel off the extra vinyl.. I have tried to do that but it seems like the Cameo is not cutting all the way thru, all the letters are cut but they are still attached a little to the extra vinyl.. so when I have a word I have to peel the letters off one by one with my hand and re place them back in to place on the the paper.. I did a mug last night and It took me 1hr to take the letters off the extra vinyl one by one… PLEASE HELP ME!!!

I have the same issue and it’s driving me insane. I’m trying to cut rhinestones, but not one of the circles are cut completely. Each and every one of them is still attached to the paper, and had to a use a little scissor to cut them off completely.

Hi, I found the answer to my problem.. 1. The vinyl I was using was not helping at all.. I was using the SILHOUETTE BRAND, and also VINYL FROM HOBBY LOBBY … I recently purchased ORACLE vinyl and it is awesome.. I also called SILHOUETTE customer service line and they advised me to change some settings on the cutting screen…
On the cutting screen look for LINE SEGMENT OVERCUT: TURN IT ON, change START EXT to 0.02- END EXT 0.02. (I PLAYED AROUND WITH THESE SETTINGS AND FIND OUT 0.005-0.005 OR 0.009-0.009 WORKS GREAT)

HELP! Whenever we download a design from the store and transfer to the grid, it shows a double image. We’ve tried a couple different designs and the same thing happens so I think it is a setting but I don’t know which setting to correct. Also, sometimes the program will lock up and I have to shut down and restart computer. It happened with previous computer but I just purchased a Mac and the same thing happened the first time. Any suggestions?

Please help. I used my cameo one single time and can’t get it to work anymore. What happens is that I hit send to silhouette and it shows that’s it’s synced and ready and then it shows the job is complete. Nothing happened though. I don’t understand. I have all the proper settings. I’m about to
Cry

I’m still new to the Cameo, so I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. I stick the paper or cardstock to the grid of the mat as instructed, and make sure the outline of the cutlines are all on the grid where the paper is. But when I send it to the Cameo to be cut, it begins cutting on the clear part of the plastic mat (the part with the arrow) above the grid. The cutlines are all higher then they appear in the preview, so the top of the design is cut into the mat and the rest is cut into my paper.

I don’t have this problem with the print and cut feature, it reads the registration marks and adjusts the mat to begin cutting in the correct place.

When you load the mat you must push the load mat button on the machine which has a little gridded mat icon on it. This loads the mat into the correct position. The other buttons with (blank little mat icons forward and backward) are for vinyl media etc.

Please help!!! I’ve tried YouTube, Facebook groups, silhouette customer service… Problems not fixed. I have two. First is regarding print then cut. I have files I know are perfect, I print them out send to cameo (have had less than week) and the top cuts fine the bottom is way off???

Second problem pixscan mat. I calibrated then that was accepted. Took pic of file, accepted. Traced, then ??? Lost

Did you ever get your first problem resolved? I’m having the same issue. Everything looks fine on screen, and the top of the file everything cuts correctly, but the further the rollers advance, the more offset my cuts are at the bottom of the page.

I’m having the same exact problem and I am so frustrated. Anyone get any help? It looks great until it starts cutting… Then it’s 1/4″ to 1/2″ off from my image, sometimes above the image, sometimes below it.

Unfortunately not, but I did however find a way to get around it (in some way), by having both 2.9 and the 3.4 installed at the same time on my computer. That way I can open newer design versions and save them in Legacy. And I don’t think that the issue has anything to do with the extending hardware – it’s the Cameo and the software in it that doesn’t know how to respond to the 3.0 program.

My Silouette is not working anymore. It say Silhouette studio.exe has stopped working. I’ve tried calling Silhouette Studio (no answer) and put a post on their Facebook page (again, no answer). Any ideas on what I can do to fix this?

Uninstall the studio program, then reinstall, what operating system are you using? What studio version are you using? I’ve came to find out I can only use the older version of sil studio, The new version freezes my system every time, so you may need to download the older version.

Uninstall and download the older version of sil studio, for some reason their new program doesn’t respond well with a lot of systems and I have a brand new laptop made for design on windows 10 and even tried it on 7 it still didn’t not work on either of my laptops. The older version works perfect

Hi. I hope you could help me with my problem. The touchscreen panel on my cameo just got broken by accident and the service is taking a long time to repair it because they are waiting for the parts to be delivered. My question is could you still load/upload materials using the silhouette software(not using the panel). I hope you could help me with this one. Thank you very much.

Hi, Jemo,
I’m sorry to hear about your Cameo screen breaking. Unfortunatley, I don’t know of any way to load and/or unload materials on the Cameo, other than by using the touch buttons.
I hope your parts arrive soon!!!

Finally someone who may / may not be able to help me with my “little” problem.
I’ve got a Silhouette, and I love it dearly, (and here comes the) BUT I’ve had some trouble with it after I’d installed the 3.something software.
The software works like a charm on my computer, but as soon as I wanted to send something to the Silhouette it kept waiting for it to get ready as if the Silhouette was already working on a job or it was still loading after turning the power on..
From what I can tell I’ve got a Cameo v 1.20.

I really hope You have a solution (and if the solution is that I have to aquire the newer machine then a very good reason for doing so which I can pass on to my GF LOL)

Have you found anything helpful on this issue? It sounds like the ame issue I’m having. When I called Silhouette support they told me I needed a new USB cord even though that is not the issue. I used a different one and am still having the same thing happen.

Unfortunately not, but I did however find a way to get around it (in some way), by having both 2.9 and the 3.4 installed at the same time on my computer. That way I can open newer design versions and save them in Legacy. And I don’t think that the issue has anything to do with the extending hardware – it’s the Cameo and the software in it that doesn’t know how to respond to the 3.0 program.

I need some HELP with my love/hate relationship with my Silhouette! 🙂 I CANNOT find OFFSET on my program?!?!? I have looked everywhere—and searched tutorials and everything, but I don’t have an offset button anywhere. I know it should be next to modify and by trace…but I can’t find it! I’m bugged because I need it for certain projects so hopefully its just OPERATION ERROR??? (totally could be…) Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

The answer to your question is on Page 25 of the Cameo User’s Manual. Here it is:

6.13 Offset Options The Offset option may be used to outline cut-line images giving the image a shadowed mat effect underneath it. It may also be used to create contoured inner lines for images.
1. To apply offset conditions, you will first need to select an image.
2. Original Starting Image
3. Within the Offset menu you may start by selecting the offset action.
4. You may select to either have your offset image have a sharper Corner appearance, or have a softer more bubbly Round appearance.
5. Though clicking the offset action button provides a starting point, you may fine tune the offset effect to any specified Offset Distance with the slider bar, or by typing in a specific measurement.
6. At any point your desired effect is achieved you may set the properties of the newly created image into place by clicking Apply.

Did you check that your power outlet is working? Plug a lamp into it and if the lamp comes on, then you can rule out the outlet. That would narrow it down to the Cameo, itself, in which case you would have to call support.

i have a Silhouette Portrait and the thing that worries me a lot and makes a lot of troubles is when i remove the cutted figure from the mat and its sticky! Do you know how to deal with it? i don’t need this sticky “back side” at all

Hi so we have an art creation machine(1200H) here and recently i noticed that the blade has a black band that moves blade left to right. But it seems as if it became lose and now it gets stuck when it wants to move a certain direction. Its because of those bands that it gets stuck and i cant find any tutorials on how to fix this.

You have to be using the latest software from silhouette to be able to connect to the server so if you are using any software earlier than the latest you can’t connect to server or that is at least how I understand it

My Portrait stopped half way of the cutting…. its showing “syncing” during the stop. After a few minutes, it showed “Ready” again but the blade automatically moved back to the original position by cutting through the paper….
very upset and cannot find the reason…. I did try turning off and on again for both machine and software but still the same.

I’m getting the same problem. The machine will just stop at some arbitrary point in the job (sometimes before it’s even started cutting!), and the screen will say something like “WAITING”, then “READY” as if it had finished. Sometimes, then, the blade will go to reset itself to the start position (often ignoring my setting to feed ahead another few inches at the end), and will just cut a big line through everything in the process. I’ve tried power cycles and restarting the software, but no luck.

Please help
After cutting borders of the box the blade goes at the very bottom of the cutting mat instead of the top. And if i proceed with the same project to cut other colors of the box (folding part) it starts to cut even lower and cutting mat is falling out from the back of the machine
What to do? restart did not really help

Hi, I’m not sure if anyone has answered you, but I was having the same issue until I looked closer at the small screen on the cameo and realized I had it set to load just the media with no mat, as soon as I selected the other option (load cutting mat) it worked like a charm! Good luck!

I just purchased the Silhouette Portrait and trying to make stickers. I bought several of their images and whenever I am inserting them into my file all I see is an outline of the image. I am ready to scream. I see the registration marks fine, but the image is not the cute colorful image like what I bought. It’s a red outlined image. What did I do? 🙁

Have had a silhouette for years, Have over 9,000 files and with each update I started having all the problems you all are experiencing. To bad, this was once a great machine and company. When you called there was a real person to talk with and recieve help. Now there is no response either by phone or e-mail. Time to go back to cricut and try the new one. What a waste. So sorry all you re seeing the end of what once was a great product. Oh well thats the American way. Gotta love it

They have a live chat feature. I tried it just yesterday and the gentleman was very helpful and emailed me a whole list of instructions for uninstalling and reinstalling the software and reloading my purchases. More discussion to ensue as I have not gotten that part to work. Certificate errors popped up when I used the store button. Ongoing saga – we shall see. Too bad the Cricut air came out one month after I bought my silhouette Cameo.

I’m sure you’ve found the answer by now but unless by the fil there is a P you have bouhgt a simple cut file and so all you get is the cut line. The coloured image unless it’s a p and c file is just there to show you what the final image should look like. You can make stickers though – select your shapes and choose ‘no cut’ from the cut menu, then fill each shape with colour, form your final image, group the pieces then trace as a whole image. Then you can print and cut. If you want to layer your stickers just enable the cut lines around each piece. Hope this helps.

Hi, I have a Silhouette Portrait, and it was working fine until recently, when one of the sliders seemed to become looser than the other, causing the cutting mat to slide side ways and ruining the whole sheet. This recurs every time and i can never get a good cut out of it. Is it a defect?

I have been cutting with my cameo for about a month now and it was registering fine then all of a sudden yesterday all hell broke lose.
My cameo stopped mid job and said complete and to unload and then when i went to re start it the studio froze so I unplugged the USB that connects machine to laptop and it was fine however everytime i plug my machine in to cut a design it stops responding and will not work 🙁

I have done everything that you would normally do in this situation including try to use different versions to see if they would work but nothing has please help I use this machine for my business

I have been cutting with my cameo for about a month now and it was registering fine then all of a sudden yesterday all hell broke lose.
My cameo stopped mid job and said complete and to unload and then when i went to re start it the studio froze so I unplugged the USB that conects machine to laptop and it was fine however everytime i plug my machine in to cut a design it stops responding and will not work 🙁

I have done everything that you would normally do in this situation including try to use different versions to see if they would work but nothing has please help I use this machine for my business

I purchased my Silhouette Cameo on Sunday last week. I tried cutting vinyl using the blade setting on 2 and speed 5. The page size was A4 and had a few goodies on to cut, it started off really well, cutting the top left image then it went through the motions looking like it’s cutting but not touching the vinyl. When I unloaded the vinyl the top image it “cut” wasn’t cut through and none of the other images was cut. Why would that be??

I have had my Portrait for just over 1 month, and although I can manage most things on it, downloading items from the design store is a whole other story…I never get all my download, the picture is in the library but when I try to pull it up it says file not supported. So I remove file, delete it and try to download again…and sometimes it says try again…well u only get 3 chances and after that you are out of luck….I never have a problem getting downloads into photoshop or off etsy

I have contacted Silhouette so many times in the past 4 months that I am ready to throw the darn thing across the room. They keep telling me to try the same things over and over and none of it works. Here is a list of a few things that are issues:
1. Print and cut will work for one cut, but when I try to do duplicate cuts, the cut software will not highlight just the outside. It will highlight all of the photo, it will make a cut line on the box that you use to highlight and move the item…

2. freezes up all the time. It is not my graphics card because Photoshop 6 works just fine and this is a huge program!

3. When you want to move something the hand will show up and when I grab something, it deletes it or makes it smaller or larger(no arrow just the hand)

4. When I want to make a circle or square, it just goes crazy, making huge circle when I just drag a bit.

I’m enjoying reading all the responses and solutions to different problems. I found this forum because my Cameo cuts great on the left side but sometimes only scores things I have placed on the right half of the page. I just can’t figure this out. It doesn’t do it every time either. I was cutting out several smaller shapes today. Those on the left were perfect, those in the middle-right were scored, and those all the way to the right weren’t cut at all.

Also, everyone says don’t use your blade higher than 2 or 3. I have to set mine at a 5 for 65 lb. cardstock or it won’t cut at all. Could there possibly be a problem with my machine?

I just got my machine and while I don’t have the uneven cutting from the left to right, I do have the same issue with the settings. If I have my blade set at anything below 3 it barely even marks the paper. I was wondering if maybe there was a calibration issue? Does anyone know if there is there some way to “test” this?

I have been using my silhouette cameo for about a year and love it. This is my first try at sketching an image. I imported the image, traced it, deleted the original image. in cut settings, I selected NO CUT and also selected the sketch pen. However when I send to silhouette it says its working but does nothing and quickly says cutting complete. Help! Any suggestions greatly appreciated

Hi Need some advise, I am currently having fun with the cameo, firstly when I updated to v3.3.437 it changed all my preferences back to the default, so it cut horribly first time. Now I have sorted it out is is leaving little bit not fully cut mainly in the pointed areas of the design (currently cutting a dog with lots of fur). First thought it was the version I was on so I updated to the latest version 3.3.451. Still having the same issue. I would not mind so much if I was cutting a large image as it would easy to remove without causing any damage, but these are fine lines and can break easy (done it twice so far). I only use American Craft Card stock and also set it the same cut settings I have always used when using this card, but can’t seem to resolve this. Any ideas?.

I bought a Cameo right before Christmas and finally got to use it – or at least I’ve been trying. I’m just so upset with the darned thing. I want to use my own images, so I imported a jpeg and duplicated it several times and traced the whole thing so I can make stencils with Silhouette’s Stencil Material. I just can’t get it to work. Every time I try to cut, the Cameo cuts a few of the images, or sometimes a few parts of the images, all seemingly randomly placed. It left a couple of diagonal slashes in other places. I think the setting for the blade is right, based on the images that do cut. The other parts have no cuts at all. I took the blade housing apart and the blade moves freely. The setting is on Stencil Material. I just can’t figure out what’s going on. I tried calling customer service but was untimately told no one was available, to leave a message and someone would get back to me in 48 hours! I’m so mad! Any ideas?

Ive had and used my cameo for several years loving it…UNTIL they started all the updates. Now am hating it. I have started having aall these issues after the updates.
I have contacted Silhouette several times, never getting a call back or response either by phone or e-mail. So sad that a once great product is in the toilet now. Few years ago if you called you got a person to help. Not so now. They just don’t care
So good luck guys. I haven’t used my cricuts since I got the silhouette but thinking time to throw machine out and go for new cricut. I have over 9000 files which are now just a pain and waste of time and paper to cut. Bye bye silhouette

I’m having a similar problem. My Cameo fails to cut along the right edge of every design, every time. I have requested support for this, and I’m getting ridiculous answers that only make the problem worse. I’m told to “clear the preferences” by removing an AppData folder. That only makes the software completely fail to load. Besides, I haven’t set any preferences which caused this. This has happened from day one. Customer support is poorly named.

I don’t know what is going wrong with this. I ensure that my designs are well away from the edge, and completely within the red square area in the preview page. This has been an absurd experience so far, and I am becoming disgusted with the company.

When my computer goes into sleep mode while in the middle of a long cut, the silhouette will stop and read “unload” although it is only part way through the cut. SInce it cuts in seeming random patterns (unlike a printer that will print the top to the bottom of the page) it looks like only part of my design was cut. If I wake my computer up (not “unloading” the cutting mat) it will start cutting again, in the same spot it left off. It took me awhile to realize this (wasting some good vinyl and hair pulling along the way). Now everything cuts fine.

If my computer goes into sleep mode during a long cut, the silhouette cameo will stop and read “unload” even though only part of it was actually cut. SInce the machine cuts in seeming random patterns (a letter here, back to the top for part of a design etc – as opposed to a printer that prints top to bottom) it left me confused as to what I had done wrong. If I wake up my computer (without unloading the cutting mat) it will pick up where it left off and cut just fine. Figured this out after wasting too much material and hair pulling. oh well, but now I have no problem.

I have had my Silhouette for about two years now and have used it numerous amounts of times with no problem mainly cutting heat and adhesive vinyl. I have noticed that in the design program whenever I try to move an object either with the arrows or a mouse/keypad the object moves by 1/2″ or 1″ making it hard to align things perfectly.

I know that there is the align options but that takes too long and frustrates me! I used to be able to just click on an object and move is simply by .001″ no problem. I have tried googling this for a while now and have decided to just write a comment.
Please someone HELP ME!

Hey. I just bought the Cameo a week ago and I’m starting to get frustrated with it! I finally managed to figure out the registrations mark (I’m using the new cameo if that matters?) but the cuttings aren’t that exact. It’s always slightly off. I’m not sure how else to place the paper on the matt I’ve tried everything! Also, I purchased gift box from the online design store. When I try to work on the box, I can’t seem to figure out how to fill in the box. It colors the small pieces fine but when I want to fill in a box that has perforated lines in it, it won’t let me do so. Is there something I should know for when a design has perforation? One more thing! Sorry if I’m rambling but I’ve tried going through all the videos on youtube and none of them seem to be answering the questions that I need. My last issue is when I couldn’t figure out the right allignment. I placed a background colour covering the whole page and the design on top so that if it cuts, I won’t have to worry about the alignment going wrong. But when I do that, it only prints the background colour and not the shape of the box even though I have the cut option on so that the lines should show while printing. What am I doing wrong? Please help!

Hello! I have a silhouette cameo, I’ve been cutting with it for about 5 months on a daily basis, cutting contact paper ( duct tape brand. setting as: blade-1 speed-8 thickness-3 ) no problems! my blade got dull so.. ( all this happened right around the same time-ish ) I bought a new blade , updated my software, and opened a new roll of contact paper. now when I cut it will only cut on the right side! (12 inch sheet) it will cut the left side but not all the way through, but on the right it will cut all the way through!! I’ve tried to change everything blade, speed , thickness… nothing has worked! I’ve even changed my software to default. I don’t know if i should buy a new blade or contact paper. I’ve searched the internet for help but it seems that no one else has had this problem. any and all help would be so greatly appreciated!!! ( since this is what brings in my income)
Sincerely,
Super frustrated and panicking!

I just tried to cut vinyl stencil from the starter kit and had this problem. Newish blade, have cut the regular Silhouette vinyl a couple times before without problem. With this project, the left half was cut – in one corner it even cut through the backing sheet which messes up the design, but the right half tapers off to no cut. Seems like the blade pressure isn’t consistent. Anyone have a solution?

Hi Gloria,
I love love love my cameo, but a few days ago I started having problems with my mouse. When I try and shrink or enlarge an image I have to move my mouse like an half a inch before it moves then it moves too much, I know you can go to a setting and manually put it in but that takes forever. I’m able to go on my saved pages and it works just fine, just on new ones it doesn’t work right. I’m wondering if I’m hit a button by mistake?

Hi, Kelly,
I’m glad you love your Silhouette…I love mine, too!! This problem with your mouse is an unusual one. It’s not a mouse setting, because you’re not having the problem with old documents. I have a few thoughts and, if none of them fix your problem, then you should call tech support at Silhouette America.

1) Is your mouse acting strange in any other applications, such as Word, e-mail, etc?

2) Are you using the new v.3 of Silhouette Studio? If so, you probably know that it still has lots of bugs in it. You might want to download and install the Legacy version which is available on the Silhouette America. I installed it when it first came out and it was completely useless. I know they’ve fixed some of the bugs, put it’s still not reliable and is causing frustration for lots of users.

Thanks for all of the information here. The initial post wasn’t what I was looking for, but all of the comments after were! I haven’t used my Silhouette in a while and sat down to use it and couldn’t find anything in the new V3 software and it kept locking up on me. So thanks for all of the help! working well on the legacy version now.

As a side note, if your mat is too tacky when you first start, try sticking a clean t-shirt to it and pulling it off. Makes it a little less sticky. Also I prefer to use the Cricut mats. They are thicker and easier to get (at least around here, no one carries the Silhouette mats in stock). I cut through the only Silhouette mat I had but haven’t had as much trouble with the Cricut mats.

How do you use the circuit mats? that is so interesting, because I have several brand new mats that never got used because I switched to the silhouette. So I would really like to know how to utilize them if possible. thank you Lil

hi there
i really felt like the girl on your pic above. thanks a lot for the “change the roller”-subscription. i never thought about that! it helped me a lot.
thanks again, so glad i’ve found your site.
cheers

So glad I found your blog. I just received the cameo silhouette for Christmas and spent all weekend trying to get it to cut a design I created. I have watched NUMEROUS youtube videos, etc. and can’t, for the life of me, get it to cut. Vinyl is on the matte, matte is in the machine, ready to go. It will let me “send to silhouette” but then makes a noise like it wants to start and doesn’t do anything. I also only see a ‘test cut’ button and not a ‘cut’ button like all the videos show. Help!????

hi all
I wonder if someone could help me please i’m trying to make some xmas tags and the work I have up on screen will not move I click on it an nothing I can’t do any work on screen any ideas please
regards julie

My new Cameo Silhouette doesn’t like me. ! I thought I had everything set right…and when I came to the ‘send to silhouette’ stage…it keeps saying ‘ Registration failed”. I have the blade set on 3…good Cardstock..everything positioned correctly on the cutting mat…so …why?

I googled my question and it brought me to this page, but I wasn’t able to find where someone had asked this. I am trying to import a word as a png file. When I cut it, it either cuts nice and smooth, but leaves out the inner letter like on O and e, Or it cuts the inner letters out, but the outside is rigid and doesn’t look as nice. It actually cuts a really thin outer trace and I hate it. Any idea how to import a word and have it cut the middle letters and still cut smooth?

I was using my cameo, and everything was fine. I noticed my laptop was getting pretty hot, and then I noticed my program would no longer work…ugh.

It has been 4 days and I can’t figure out why I can’t use the program…it loads up as usual and the actual starting screen shows up…but when I choose an
option, it is just stuck…with the little icon spinnng…ugh again! Please help..I have not backed up any of my stuff…..yikes

Are you using the new Studio 3 software? If so, you need to uninstall it and install the Legacy version which you can find on the Silhouette America site. The new version is still very unstable and Silhouette America has advised users to go back to the Legacy version. I tried the new one and it was riddled with problems! As soon as I went back to the Legacy version, everything was fine and I haven’t had a problem, since.

Oh my word, I am having the same problem. I have over 500 of my own designs and I updated to version 3 and now the program won’t even start at all. It Says Silhouette Studio.exe has stopped and won’t launch program at all. If I uninstall, I am afraid I will lose all of my designs. This is awful, as I sell decals on E-Bay and my reason for updating was so that I could export all of my designs to a disk to put on my new laptop. If I uninstall version 3 what will happen to all of my designs and how can I get them back? I hope your answer will help others too. Thank you in advance for your assistance.
Glenda in GA

Same problem, prevent the computer from allowing the cameo to phone home by turning off your internet access. The program will start and run normally after that. Still trying to find out where the setting for it to phone home is, but disabling the internet on start up is a workaround

I’ve tried everything! I have been able to use my Cameo a total of one time with it working correctly. Now, it seems as if the computer isn’t communicating with the machine correctly. It’ll print one part of a letter correctly and then put the other part an inch away. I’ve bought a new blade, uninstalled V3 and am now using Legacy version. Rebooted my MAC and the Cameo and I can’t get it to print one thing correctly. Someone help me!

Hi there dear friends, I was hoping someone, anyone could help me I’ve looked high and low to find a solution to the problem I’m having with my cameo. I’m a new user, so I am definatly learning still the in’s and out’s of this machine, I’m probably missing something or not using this thing properly.
I wanted to print out an accourdian circle so I got everything situated on my mat highlighted everything so everything I wanted cut will be cut, it show’s up on my screen properly, I press send to silhouette and it starts to work it’s magic and I unload the mat to examine my master piece and I realize that it cut everything but the outer lines of my image. I’ve tried everything, I’ve changed the setting to cut to the edge of the mat I mean everything and still it continues to omit the outside lines of my image!!! WHAT AM I DOING WRONG????? please help!!!!!

I am having the same problem!!! Nothing cuts in the outer squares on the mat…all my designs have to be minimized and small!! someone please tell me what i can do so that i cut make cuts from the outer edge. PLEASE!

I got the Cameo for Christmas last year and had downloaded quite a few images and fonts. A few weeks ago, my computer got a virus and I had to reset and of course that erased my cameo software. I have re-installed it using the both the disk and the website. When I try to recover my library, it says I need to open my studio software (it already is open). I have uninstalled and re-installed several times without success. Then I downloaded a new image and when I opened my cameo software to download it – it says it cannot connect to the server. I am VERY frustrated!!! Any other suggestions – wasn’t sure if you knew if anyone else has had this problem. I have also tried this with the newest version and the version it came with –without luck. Thanks

Hi, my machine was working good. Then I decided to change the roller as my media is smaller and it became a disaster. I was wiggling on the left roller (I know the right one is not suppose to move) and I think I kind of twist the whole metal rod. Now it sounded different and won’t load anything. The mat/card will go in perfectly but the machine will always instruct me to unload! Any help is much appreciated! I live pretty far away from states and it will be a disaster if I have to mail this back!

Firstly it seems to be double cutting in ‘Silhouette Connect’. I’m using illustrator to create the work then using Connect to cut out. However I haven’t selected the double cut option, but keeps on double cutting. I uninstalled all the software which was on the computer then re-downloaded it. Still does the same thing. Which it never used to??

Also when coming to print and cut, it recognises the marks, but then when it comes to the outer square I have encased my design in, it doesn’t cut straight, whereas on the preview it is a square. and it makes the lines wonky & not square.

Please please please asking for a miracle with some advice, these are wedding invites and they want them by the end of the week. argghhh

I don’t own and have never used a Silhouette Portrait, so I’m not able to help you. However, I’m sure that many of my readers are Portrait users, so let’s put a call-out to them to jump in and offer some advice!!
Good luck, Jenny,
Gloria

I have an idea about your double cutting problem. If you hold down control and click a design, it will copy it right on top of what you already have. Check to see if you have two copies on top of each other. I hope this helps.

Hi – I’ve had my Cameo about 3 days and all of a sudden today, Silhouette Studio will not reset when the machine is through cutting. I have to turn my cameo off and on between each new design – what’s going on?

I am using the pen holder – sometimes it works perfect, then I can do the same project, same pen and it will leave lines all over the page, between letters, from random spots on the page to the “home position” making my project ( wedding invites) useless.. please help!

Hi again Gloria. Many thanks for your speedy reply. It’s 3.15am here so it looks like another sleepless night. So, I have got rid of v3 and downloaded Legacy. Yes, I have My Library but when I try to open any design I am informed that I need to upgrade the software. Whoops. Is there any way I can retrieve the designs? That is my first query. Secondly, I have ordered the Portrait machine and the cutting mat shows that for the Cameo. It was OK with v3. Am I able to alter this to show the Portrait mat, as the arrow is off centre. I have had a good look through the buttons but can’t see anywhere to alter it. Any help would be gratefully received. xxx

Hi there, and thank you for this wonderfully informative site. Hello to all you frustrated Silhouette owners too! Three weeks prior to ordering my Portrait I downloaded the Studio v3, determined to get to grips with the software before its arrival. I also downloaded, adapted, and resized loads of freebie designs and bought several from the online shop that I thought I could use, which took me HOURZZZZ. The machine arrived and after seven hours all I ended up with were two frayed designs and after these, a gazillion ‘error – registration failed’ messages, despite having done everything right. Also, the black boxy thing over the blade was flopping around like a mad thing. I contacted technical support and they are going to replace the machine, too late unfortunately for our church fete. HOWEVER, what I would like to know is if I replace v3 with Legacy, (which could be the problem), do I lose my collection of designs in the Library or is there some way I can save them? I do not relish the thought of repeating all that I went through before! Thank you in anticipation of a reply. xx

In answer to your question about your Library of designs: no, you will not lose anything. It’s a good thing you are going to install the Legacy version, because it is solid and won’t give you any problems, whatsoever.

The new v.3, on the other hand is a software disaster. I had installed it and NOTHING worked right. Silhouette advised me to do just what you are doing, uninstall v.3. and install the Legacy version. I am an experienced Silhouette user and I plan to stick with the Legacy version for quite some time.

I am having a difficult time cutting several 6 x 6 background designs purchased from the Silhouette online store. One is a little intricate but the other aren’t. I am cutting 80lb cardstock and have my settings at speed 2, thickness 33, knife blade setting at 9 and selected double cut. Halfway through the design the machines stops cutting and just stalls at the locations where it stopped. The only way to clear it and unload the paper is to turn the Silhouette off and back on. I am using the latest version of Silhouette sofware, don’t recall having this problem with the V2. Has this happened to anyone else? I called Silhouette support but have yet to heard back from them.

I would highly recommend that you uninstall v.3. and install the Legacy version–it’s solid and will not give you any trouble. The new v.3. is riddled with problems. I had installed it on my computer and it wasn’t even usable. Silhouette American advised me to go back to the Legacy version.
I hope this helps. Good luck!
Gloria 🙂

Thanks for your reply. Yes, I continue to have the same problems so I will uninstall an re-install the legacy version. Second time around, I thought by now the V.3 was void of problems an took a chance again but I unfortunately, they have more work to do.

I’m with you on this one!! It will be a while before I try the new version again, too. Once it starts getting good reviews, I will wait a few months before trying it out. Also, I really didn’t like the look and feel of the new one.

HELP! I cannot find my folders in my library. When I click on open Library it will bring up recent downloads, but, not all my folders on the left like it used to do. I have like 4 folders, Recent downloads, My own designs, All designs, etc. But I cannot get anything except the recent downloads to show up. I am sure it is something simple I am not doing, but, please help me!!!!

Calibrating the Silhouette can be as easy as just turning it off and back on again. Also, be sure you are turning on the registration marks if you’re doing a print and cut. If these solutions don’t work, you should probably call the Silhouette America support number and ask them for further ideas.

I’m impressed, I have to admit. Rarely do I come across a blog that’s equally educative and engaging, and without a
doubt, you have hit the nail on the head. The problem is something which too few people are speaking intelligently about.
I am very happy that I stumbled across this during my search for something regarding this.

Hello Gloria,
Thank you so much for all your helpful hints! I am so thankful for all the tips and ways you’ve helped me troubleshoot 🙂
I’ve scrolled through all the comments but didn’t spot this problem:
My Cameo was purchased 12/13 I am running the previous software since all of the problems with the most recent one. My cameo cuts beautifully but is not cutting where the roller slides up and down the vinyl. It’s just blank where the wider part of the roller grips the vinyl. Any thoughts?
Thank you!!!!
Elizabeth

I so happy to hear that you have found my sight useful. Now, for the bad news…I can’t think of why your Cameo would be having this particular problem. If this is a new problem, then start with the basic trouble-shooting steps: turn off your Cameo; close Silhouette Studio; turn of your computer. This will clear the memory. Then, turn on your computer; open Silhouette Studio; and last, turn on your Cameo. It should cut fine. If not, I would recommend calling the Silhouette America support team. Their number is on the Silhouette America site.

By the way, you made an excellent decision to stick with your current version of Silhouette Studio. I installed the new v3 and it was a disaster. Silhouette America’s advice was to delete the new version and install the Legacy version (available for free download on their site). I did so and everything is working perfectly. I say, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!!”

Good luck. I hope all goes well. If not, maybe some of my readers will have some suggestions.

Thanks so much for this tip. I was going mad, wasting paper because the Cameo wouldn’t cut near the edges of the paper. I did what you suggested – turned everything off and on again, and hey presto it’s suddenly working!

I wanted to add to this issue, since I just spent time trouble shooting a similar scenario.

My vinyl stopped cutting where the rollers were. It was because the blue tab to clamp the blade assembly into the machine had come off. I easily put it back on, but it was accidentally twisted the wrong direction. As it cut, the longer thumb tab hit against the rollers, preventing contact between the blade & the vinyl.

when i draw cicle png files and impoted to silhoulette cameo cutter, there’s a problem.. when i started assign for cutting, the result is not perfectly fit to the desired cutting object… it means it was not cut perfectly.please give me some accurate settings option in order cut it perfectly. thankz

Hi, I’m new to this machine! Love it but …… Took minutes to create edible paper decorations but took FOREVER to empty the (low tack) sheet of bits! Is there a quicker way? I don’t want to wash it between each job? Suggestions please xxxxxx

Hi there! I’m having a panic attack! This has never happened to me before. I’ve had my silhouette cameo already for 2 years. And this is the first time in having an issue with it. My cameo will not turn on. I just used it yesterday and now that I want to turn it on to work on a project it won’t turn on. Do you think I burned out my cameo?!?!? Can that even be possible?!? I only use about once a week. Please help!!! Anyone!?!?

Let’s look for the simples solutions, first:
1) check that your power cord is plugged fully into the electrical outlet.
2) unplug the power cord from the Cameo and the electrical outlet and replug, just to make sure you have a good connection at both ends.
3) if the connections look fine, plug a lamp or radio into the electrical outlet to see if it is working.
4) if all of the above check out, then you may have a problem with your Cameo, in which case, you should call the Silhouette America support number.

Sometimes it’s the little things that get past us. I hope this helps. Good luck and have a wonderful weekend.

Hello! I am using the Silhouette for the first time. I followed everything it said to do. Once I hit send to silhouette – it does nothing. The status bar (blue and white) just continues to flow. Any suggestions on what my be wrong? Thank you!

Did either of you ever figure out what the issue is? I have been having this problem as well and my cameo has become useless! It’s so frustrating. I have been searching and searching and you two seem to be the only ones experiencing this as well…

I am having the same problem. I just bought my machine (used) so I’m not sure if this is common. I tried calling the help line but of course they are closed. I have restarted computer and machine several times… so frustrating

This is basically a reminder to myself, because I keep having this problem every 6 months or so, searching the internet for hints, and coming across this site where I had the same problem a year ago. (Long enough to remember I have encountered this before, but not so recent that I recall how to fix it. Arg!) Anyway, when my blue and white status bar keeps flowing or says “syncing”, but never does, I have found I have some sort of driver problem. I go to printers/devices and remove my Silhouette Cameo. My computer then prompts that I have to restart to make that change. I leave my Silhouette Cameo plugged in while it restarts, and as soon as the computer comes back on, it “finds new hardware” and then searches to find the correct driver, which it then reinstalls. When I open Silhouette Studio again, poof, everything is perfect. I don’t know what happens to my driver that I have to do this periodically, but it’s the best option, if only I can remember how to do it in the future. Hope this helps someone! Or perhaps me 6 months from now. Thanks so much for this page!

Jaime, I had misplaced my original disc (from 4 years ago!), but I found out that if I uninstalled the Cameo, let my computer restart, and when it “found new hardware”, it automatically searched for and found the needed drivers. Just in case anyone else has lost their original disc!

If I understand correctly, you want to move the right roller to the left. To do this, put on a rubber glove to give you a better grip–the rollers are really hard to move, but be persistent and you will get it back to where it belongs. CRAFTERS: if you have other ideas that may help Cathy, please leave a comment. Thanks, everyone, and good luck, Cathy.

Hi, i thought i was gunna be the only person in the world to have done this !! i too have done the exact same thing and don’t know what to do!!! My very first time trying a piece of anything through it, it was an off cut of vinyl i grabbed from work and wanted to reduce the size.

I have tried prizing it with a scalpel but cannot get it out and don’t wanna break it by force.

I have just installed the latest update of silhouette and all of a sudden one or two of my cut outs are stretching across the image, the outer edge is being stretched across the image and then it returns on it normal path. It does it a number of times across this image and I cannot get it to stop! I even re did the image and it still does it!

Welcome to the Frustration Club!!! The new version of Silhouette Studio is riddled with problems. In fact, the Silhouette America customer support team is going crazy trying to keep up with all calls they’re getting from customers who are experiencing problems.

I had installed the new Studio v.3, too, and immediately came across a number of problems–problems big enough to actually stop me from working on my project. So, I called Silhouette America and got a call back a day later. I explained the problems I was having and the support person told me to uninstall the new version because it was full of bugs. He said that the programmers are working day and night to clean up this app and make it ready for us to use.

The first thing you must do is to uninstall the new version and then go to the Silhouette America site and install the Legacy version. This will bring you back to the version you had previously and you will be back in business.

I am so much happier now that I have removed the v.3! I know Silhouette America released an update to v.3, which fixes some bugs, but I’m very happy with the Legacy version. And, as they say, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!!

Please HELP!
My silhouette started acting very off today. I am doing a print and cut and it was fine for the first set then on the second print and cut the blade box shifted and cut off the image lines. I have realigned, I have cleaned off the blade, I have used a new mat. It doesn’t matter what I do it keeps doing it! Someone please help 🙁

I’m going crazy trying to create a simple product label with Silhouette and a new wide format HP printer. I’ve created the label (easy enough), grouped the text and the frame style together, selected cut edge (tried 3.0 and didn’t care for it so went back to what I know!), added registration marks and printed. The framew print perfectly, but the test does not. It’s just blank. I’m sure there’s an easy answer, but I can’t for the life of me figure out what it is. Can any one offer advise? Thanks!!!! ~Suzy

I’m in a slight panic due to time not being on my side. I was cutting a project, walked away for a moment and when I returned, I noticed my computer had restarted to install some updates. The project I was working on, did not save. Does Silhouette have a memory where you can open previously cut projects???? Please say yes, please say yes.

I am so thrilled to have found this group. It is such a huge help. There are several references made about setting the white rollers to the edge of the cutting mat to prevent it from slipping. My question is do I leave the rollers at 12″ even if I am using 8 1/2 ” paper or do I move the RH white roller to the 8 1/2″ mark. I have severe arthritis and it is very difficult to move those white rollers out of the slots. I am going to try rubber gloves or the “waffle weave” shelf liners. Thanks for the tip.

I am fairly new to the Cameo and I just discovered the eraser tool. It’s great however once I start using it I don’t know how to get it to stop so I can do other things. This is probably really simple, but I can’t figure it out. Thanks for any help you can give.

As soon as you release your mouse button, the eraser stops working. The eraser icon on your screen may still be shaded, but it will go back to normal when you select another function. I hope this is clear, if not, come on back!!

Great site! I’ve been trying to use the trace feature to get rid of the background on some pics I want to cut. When I make the “blue block” on the pic and push the trace button nothing happens….am I doing something wrong here? I’ve watched YouTube videos and I repeat every step they do. It doesn’t make the yellow outline around the image I want to cut out.

I am having a problem with my Cameo. It will start cutting then in the middle of the cut it will make a noise and act like it is stuck for a second then continue cutting. It will do this a couple times during the entire cut but all the cuts will not be correct. Please Help.

I was just having this problem too, so frustrating! I just replaced the blade and now it seems to be cutting fine with no jumping/skipping. My blade was old, so not sure if it was dull which was causing the problem.

I am having this same problem. I have only had my cameo for 2 months and only used it a handful of times. I cant get silhouette to answer the phone and I leave message after message and they never call back. it is so frustrating because I cant even use my machine because it messes up the cut and I dont want to do any further damage. I hope that someone can help me out. I thought of doing a reset but I cant find out how to. If any one can help please let me know. Thanks

Hi Sarah,
I have been using my Cameo since about May last year and have had this happen to me once or twice. However just today (and because I have 215 placecards to cut) it has happened repeatedly. I turned off my machine for a while and replaced my blade, I really don’t know why a dull blade would cause this problem. Another thing I consider, maybe a bug in the software, as I was cutting the same thing repeatedly the last time this happened. So I have just saved the design I was wanting to cut and pasted it into another page. I was getting desperate, so tried a heap of different approaches. Hope this helps.
One last thing. Send Silhouette an email and wait 2 days for a reply. I have always received a reply to my emails. 🙂
Sharon.
Ruby Canoe Design.

Hi I just purchased my cameo and super excited to use but when i send the design to the machine it will cute 1 letter then goes back to start position moves in slightly bounces up and down goes back to start position..it does this over and over again until i stop it. What am i doing wrong what do i need to do. I am using 651 vinyl currently. Thanks

I am having trouble figuring out how to use the cutting mat to cut things exactly to the edge. There is a faded margin on all 4 sides on Silhouette Studio if I look carefully, and the part of the design in the faded margin does not get cut. If I adjust the bar to make the rollers wider, it isn’t going to roll on top of the mat. Any suggestions? It’s frustrating because you can’t line anything up correctly!

Make sure you are lining up the left edge of your cutting mat with the small line on the front of your Cameo. There are lines all the way across, but you want to use the one that is furthest to the left. Try that and you should be fine. If not, come one back and we’ll figure it out, together!
Fingers crossed,
Gloria
🙂

Also, you will need to change a setting to allow you to cut to the edge. Go to File – Preferences – then click on the Defaults section. On the bottom right hand of the window is a place to check for “Cut to edge of paper.” This will remove the faded margin. I hope this helps.

If you want the inside of letter’s to cut, for example – B, P ,O etc, what you have to do is highlight the whole word and ‘ungroup’ – click on the individual letter you want to work on and ‘ungroup’, click on the inside line and ‘make compound path’. This will tell the machine that this is a hole and needs to be cut out. Do this for each letter then highlight the whole word again and ‘group’. Hope this helps

Ladies I need your help! I love my cameo but recently it is driving me crazy!!! I am trying to cut a scalloped circle…machine will start well and then instead of meeting the cut back in the appropriate place to finish it…it ends it about 1/8″ above the starting cut! I thought there was something in the way…and there is nothing!!! I have to finish a banner ASAP and this is holding me back! Any help would be appreciated! Thank you in advance!

I just got my cameo and was so excited to use it. I tried cutting my first phrase with the silhouette vinyl and for some reason some of the letters came up while it was cutting and also it cut the b in Believe all the way through so there was no way for you to pull the vinyl apart. I have the blade set to two, and keep all the speeds the same as it told me. Do you have any ideas what im doing wrong. Thanks a ton!

Please help me. I am an avid Cameo user and never had any problem with it but over the last couple of days I have encountered an issue which has let me dumbstruck. Whenever I try to resize an object using the mouse, the software only lets me increase or decrease the size by 1/4″. Previously I could adjust the size using the mouse by the tiniest fraction of an inch but now I am restricted to 1/4 inch. This is not the case if I use the ‘Scale’ feature to resize where I can manually enter the dimensions. There I can enter fractions of an inch. Similarly if I try to move an object using the mouse, it only moves by 1/4″ but via the ‘Move’ Feature, it moves even the tiniest amount. It’s really frustrating to design with the mouse restrictions. Please help me.

I have had the strangest question, lately! This is another one I haven’t heard before. But, let’s see if we can figure it out, together.

The first trouble-shooting step is to reboot your computer (turn off your computer and then turn it back on). This will clear the memory and reset everything.

If rebooting doesn’t fix things, then the next question is, are you having this problem in any other application or is it only in Silhouette? For example, if you have an app such as Outlook or MS Word or WordPerfect, insert a photo or clip art, and you should be able to resize the photo or clip art. If you CAN do that, then we know that the problem is isolated within Silhouette Studio. If this is the case, we’ll have to check for possible mouse settings within Silhouette Studio.

If you DO have the same problems in other applications, then we have narrowed it down to a system problem. This means it could be 1) a mouse setting in the control panel (have you changed any settings, lately) 2) it could be a problem with the mouse, itself (try unplugging and re-plugging your mouse cord or, if it’s cordless, unplug the little stick and plug it back it) 3) the last thing I can suggest is downloading new mouse drivers.

If none of the above work, it’s time to call the Silhouette America support team. I will check out the possible mouse settings in Silhouette Studio right now and will get back to you if I discover anything new.

Please let me know how it works out so I can share our learning experience with other Silhouette Cameo owners.
Good luck!!

I am about ready to scream, or throw my Cameo out the window. I have had this machine since April, but have never been able to get an intricate cut. If it’s a large, simple design, I’m usually OK. But if it’s anything more complicated, the paper tears and gets caught up in the blade (and skips, or drags) every time. I’m pretty much always cutting on a 3, regular cardstock. I hear people say how much they love their Cameos, but I HATE mine, which makes me sad, since I see such potential! Please help! Thank you so much!

I feel your frustration! I’ve been through it, too. If you are using a good quality card stock, with the recommended settings, you should be getting great results. My first suggestion is to clean out the blade housing. You can do this by running a needle around the blade to pull out any debris. You should check this frequently, because it will make the difference between clean cuts and wanting to pull your hair out!
If you are keeping the blade clean, then I am at a loss. I have cut out really intricate doilies and other shapes, with no problem. I typically use Stampin’ Up Whisper White card stock and have great results. Please let me know if this helps. Good luck!!
Gloria

Not sure if this is what you mean..? Say I have a print and cut and I print my name on it…but I must remove my name before I cut out the shape. Highlight the items then right click and select ungroup. Slide the letters you do not want off the mat.

Hi!
I got the cameo (designer edition) for christmas and am having trouble with the print and cut option…

I have done all the steps correctly as you explained above but when I get to this part the screen is blank:
select “Automatically detect registration marks.” The Cameo will then go through the process of “reading” the registration marks. Then you’re ready to cut the image.

how can i proceed if this isn’t even an option? 🙁 so disheartened Im sure its a simple user error. any help is appreciated!

Maybe I didn’t explain it clearly. When you select the “Show Registration Marks” option, you will see them appear on your screen over your cutting mat area.
Then, you print the file and the registration marks will appear on your printed page.
Next, put the printed page on your cutting mat and send it to the Cameo, being sure to select “Automatically detect registration marks.” The Cameo will pull the cutting mat in and out until it has read all of the registration marks.
Now, you can go ahead and cut!!

I just got my Cameo and I have followed everything correctly. When cutting vinyl I dont use a mat and I just put in the vinyl. It cuts but, doesnt cut right. It slides all over the place and messes up the vinyl and the image.. HELP!!!!

You will love your Cameo, once you learn some of the tricks and tips that make it easy to use. I would strongly recommend that you put your vinyl on the cutting mat to ensure it stays straight and you get the end result you’re hoping for. If you are cutting out shapes that are too long for the cutting mat, just make sure that both sides of your vinyl are position directly under the rollers and that you are putting it in absolutely straight. There may be some trial and error, but believe me, there or thousands and thousands of Cameo owners who have been through the same thing! I promise you really will fall in love with your Cameo and will be turning out all sorts of wonderful projects!! Good luck!!
Gloria

I have the silhouette cameo….nice machine cuts well but now there is a problem..
My mat keeps on moving in the machine….I found your video about adjusting the rollers …I followed the instructions on flipping the blue shift down and was not able to disengaged the white collar around the metal rod…so now what can I do to get to this without breaking the machine…

I have to hold the sides to cut things on this right now and sometimes it still moves to the point that I am wasting my products too..Help me please.

The whit cylinder is really hard to move, but if you wear a rubber glove it helps you to get a better grip. Optionally, you could use one of those square waffle rubber things–the kind that keep things from slipping around. (I don’t know what they are called, but you can get them in the kitchen gadgets section at the dollar store).

Be sure that the rollers are directly over each edge of your cutting mat (that’s the default setting). The only time you would need to move the rollers is when you are using a different media that is narrower than the cutting mat.

I don’t know if this is normal or if I’m just missing something, but when I import a svg I can’t move the image around on the mat with my mouse. It will move (very very slowly) with the arrow keys, but that’s it. Any thoughts?
thanks!!!

Here are some troubleshooting tips:
1–update your software to be sure you have the latest version. You can get the latest version at Silhouette America
2–is it only with .svg files, or are you seeing the same problem with Silhouette (.sil) files?
3–is your computer running slow in other applications, such as Word? If so, it could be that you need more memory (RAM).
4–as to why the file won’t move with your mouse…is it just the .svg files or is it Silhouette files, too? We need to find out if the problem is only in Silhouette Studio and if it’s only with the .svg files.

See if you can narrow it down to just Silhouette Studio with .svg files. If so, you should talk to Silhouette America for some further advice. If the problem is happening in other applications, then we know it’s a computer problem and we can take it from there.

Please HELP!!! The Silhouette Cameo is not giving me the “cut” button at the bottom of “send to silhouette” page. The “cut” bottom should be right below the “load the cutting mat” but its not there. I have restarted everything, made sure its all plugged in perfectly, the cutting mat is loaded, all of the settings, blade and images are correct. I’ve checked the cut option, and its on cut edge which is what I want but it just wont let me cut. I’m sure this is a user error but I cannot figure it out!

It doesn’t sound like a user error to me. I’ve never heard of anyone else having this problem. It’s definitely a software problem with the Silhouette Studio application. My first suggestion would be to re-install the software, making sure you have the latest version–you can get this free at the Silhouette America website. If that doesn’t do the trick, you should call Silhouette America to get help from their support team. I would be really interested to know what the problem and solution are, so if you have a minute, please drop me a line and I will share it with my readers. Good luck and I look forward to hearing from you! Gloria

HELP!
I just bought a Silhouette Cameo and I’m really excited to start using it, but I’m having a strange problem: Neither my text nor my images will show up on the virtual mat. I didn’t have any problems installing the software and I didnt get any errors. I thought about re-installing it, but I’m afraid that I’ll lose all of the designs I purchased. Please tell me whats going on and how to fix it!
Thank you!!

Sorry it took me so long to answer, I’m usually very prompt, but the holidays have kept me pretty busy. Your problem is a new one! I haven’t heard of any others having this problem. Your idea to re-install the software is the best place to start. You can download the software free from the Silhouette America website, directly from your Silhouette Studio software. Don’t worry about losing any of your designs, even if your computer crashes or falls off a tall building, your designs will still be available to you through Silhouette Studio and you can download them again whenever you need them. Please let me know how it works out. Good luck!! Gloria 🙂

I’ve recently bought a silhouette cameo and used it fine for the past couple of days but today I tried to click on the program and it brought up loads of error messages;

runtime Error, Press OK to continue, Press Cancel to Quit. Please report what caused this along with the information below. ..\..\..\..\Common\loaderX86.cpp:309, Failure Condition: functionEntry, Could not resolve function ‘ConvexHull’ in sstudio1.dll.

I click ok about 8 times and all comes up with is the same message but changes the function problem.

Are other applications showing your similar errors? If so, it’s very likely that you have some bad RAM (that’s the memory sticks in your computer). RAM can become defective and when you try to open/run applications, you get error messages. When you have defective RAM, it needs to be replaced.

However, BEFORE we jump to the conclusion that you have a hardware problem, you should re-install Silhouette Studio.

Hi Gloria.
I hope you can help me with my Cameo.
I tried to print my own image then cut on cameo, but keep failed.
The cutting result always miss from the image.
I have learn from many video tutorials that you need to put registration mark first before print, but still no use on me.
Any trick how to print and cut on Cameo?
Thank you.

I’m not sure exactly what steps you are taking, but you should be able to print and cut anything you like on your Cameo. You are doing the right thing by printing the registration marks. Once you have the printed page on your mat, put it into your Cameo and select “Automatically detect registration marks.” The Cameo will then go through the process of “reading” the registration marks. Then you’re ready to cut the image.

HELP! I’M SO FRUSTRATED WITH MY CAMEO but I want to LEARN how to use it better. I am a first time cameo user. How do I keep the mat from sliding around while the machine is cutting? I made sure the roller was down etc but it still shifts while its cutting. Also, the blade cut a deep, long line on my mat and I think it’s too damaged to use again. Is this normal for the mat to be cut so deep from a simple cut?

You need to be sure that the rollers are right over the edges of the mat to ensure it runs through without sliding around.

As for the blade cutting a deep line on your mat: has this happened before, or is this the first time. One tip is to remember that the blade setting on your screen and the setting of the actual blade need to be the same. I have some major cuts in my mat, too, but they are at the top and don’t affect my cutting jobs. Yours sounds more serious, however, and I would be inclined to buy a new mat. I prefer the Cricut mats because they are much sturdier. They are exactly the same size as the Silhouette Cameo mats, so feel free to buy whichever is the best deal.

I have a cameo and have the basic studio that comes with it. I ordered the sketch pens and was excited to use them. However, I can’t seem to find the sketch designs I purchased and downloaded. Where would I find these? Do I need to upgrade to a different studio?

You probably already have this problem solved. In case you haven’t or another reader may have the same problem: Open the studio, Go to the online store. Select “My Account” at the top neared the right side. Then select “My Download History”. Click on the order and download it again. Just a side note there. There are limited times you can download an order. So, make sure you have not missed it in your library. Another option is to, in Studio, click on file and select “Download pending orders”. You may want to try the latter first. Hope that helped. 🙂

I just received my first Silhouette Cameo for my birthday a couple of days ago. Since then, I have probably cut 5 things. Tonight, I decided to cut vinyl. It worked great the first time. Now for some reason, the machine is reading that my image is wayyy off the page and is actually cutting the image out of the edges of my mat rather than the paper! I even tried centering the image on the paper, but nothing is working. In addition, it is not cutting the object that I am sending. For example, I was trying to cut the letter “K” for a Turvis, but instead it cut all the weird lines and starting making a VERY loud noise!!! It was scary!!! What do I do??

PLS HELP ME .I BOUGHT MY SILHOUETTE CAMEO A WEEK A GO AND ITS NOT CUTTING STRAIGHT BECAUSE I NOTICED THAT THE ROLLERS ARE NOT THE SAME LEVEL AND WHEN I PUT THE PAPER IT DOES NOT DO A STRAIGHT CUT IT GOES IN ANGLES IM SO FRUSTERATED PLS HELP ME
THANKS .TANIA VERA

First, congratulations on your new Cameo!! Okay, the first thing to check is the blue lever at the right side of the roller bar–make sure it is in the UP position. That will ensure that your cutting mat is held securely. Also, make sure that both rollers are positioned over the edges of your cutting mat (that’s the default position).

Hello, I have the original silhouette, and only have successfully used it twice. I am trying use it again and it is not cutting the image correctly. Almost like it is not reading it properly. I have borrowed my girlfriends and put it with my computer and it works fine. So it is not the computer. Any suggestions?

Hi, Heather,
The first thing to do when you face this sort of problem is to turn off your Cameo and shut down your computer. Then, turn your computer and Cameo back on. This allows the memory to clear and you should be back in business!! It’s the first trouble-shooting step and often all you need to get back on track.
I hope this works!!!
Gloria
🙂

Firstly I’m very impressed with your site. Really nice of you to help people with their queries and problems.

I got the Silhouette Cameo, and very excitedly sat down to make my first cut. Well, this is my second machine, I have a Sizzix big shot already. While trying to adjust the blade, maybe I turned it too hard and it went all the way beyond 10. Now, the entire blade is jutting out and refusing to retract even on the grey cap. I’m so sad 🙁 Please help.

I got mine today, newbie yup very much so! I did this in reverse today had had no blade at all when i turned it. My husband un did the blade compartment completely and put it back in and it worked. I think he just used the other end of the ratchet turning tool.

I really need some help 🙁
I am trying to cut out a phrase on cardstock, but on all trace options, the SC is picking up my font outline and tracing on either side, so it is creating very intricate work on a font that should should be very simple and 200pt size.
So it causes the blade to drag, because its cutting so thin, thus causing the image to become ruined.

I hope I have made this sound clear, I am confused just reading it myself!
I just need a way for the trace option to pick up the outline and any bits ‘inside’ the outline, such as the bits that make an ‘O’, rather than only the outside causing it to be a block circle, and one trace line on the font, rather than either side.

Your first paragraph left me confused, too, but the second paragraph explains it…I think! LOL!

Just select your phrase and then click on the little scissors in the tool bar at the top. (See the attached screen grab). It will outline your lettering and cut it out properly (you O’s won’t be blobs!).

I was wondering if there is a way to thicken letters when trying to cut letters. I have so many cool fonts but they all cut thin! I’m a teacher so I cut a lot of letters out!! Any input would be helpful, thanks!!

There’s no way to thicken up the letters without just enlarging them–which isn’t what you want to do. The only way to get chunkier letters is to choose a chunkier font, such as Arial Black or Cooper Black. They’re nice fat letters that should work well for your purposes.

It is an A4 sheet, so I selected A4 sheet, put the vinyl onto the cutting mat making sure the shiney side was on the mat, and it was in the top left corner nearest the feeder… selected blade 2 on the blade and speed 8, thickness 9 blade 2 on the settings… but it didn’t seem to cut very deep. It also went outside of the A4 size too and marked the cutting mat – any ideas?

Hi Gloria
I had my silhouette a year ago and it worked perfectly .. but wen I tried to cut with it today it didn’t cut !! or should I say it cut but not all the way threw the cardboard ,first I thought it was the plaid sense its an old one so I replaced it with a new one but nothing changed 🙁
I tried several designs and ended with the same result .. I watched the machine will it worked and got the feeling that its not butting enough brasher on the plaid and that’s why its not cutting threw the paper
I don’t no what to do pleas help me .
I am not from the US I Bought the silhouette from amazon

Hi Gloria! Man I wish my problems seemed as easy as everyone else’s. It’s so difficult to explain it sounds like I”m making it up. I assure you, I’m not!
When I first got my machine almost a year ago, it worked perfectly. I took it slow, since I didn’t know what I was doing. I cut a little freezer paper, some scrapbook paper, and that was it. Then I ventured out into cardstock and vinyl. Wow! I loved it!! Over the past few months though, I’ve noticed that when cutting words or sayings (I do ALOT of that), sometimes one or two (or a few) of my letters are missing cuts. ie.The left side of the P didn’t cut all the way though, or the middle of the “O” didn’t cut all the way. I have tried EVERYTHING! I’ve bought new blades, new mats…I’ve adjusted the “speed” in the settings menu, as recommended by another blog I found. I’ve tried several adjustments to the cut settings. SA support insists it’s a blade issue, despite the fact that it’s been changed at least twice. It does seem to have this problem in the first letter of what I’m cutting almost every time, but at other times, it’s random. It could be in the middle of the word, at the end…you just never know. It’s a BIG waste of vinyl and a super huge headache. After the 3rd or 4th time, I just pull out the Exacto knife and finish the cut on my own, even thought it’s not perfect. It’s almost like the blade is picking up to move, but not being set back down in time to cut…if that’s even a “thing”! I’ve tried Silhouette Brand vinyl and vinyl I get from my local sign shop. It does the same thing with both. It doesn’t seem to do it on cardstock, but it has done it on the scrapbook paper. Can you help, before I throw the thing through the wall??

Oh I was soooo hoping there was a reply with some helpful hints for this problem!! I am having the EXACT same issues!!! (Granted, I have not replaced my blade yet)…I still don’t think for the expense of this machine that we should have these issues. It’s such a huge waste of vinyl, which none of us can afford to waste. Mine tends to happen when it’s a large project or a very important one! I’ll keep a check on here to see if you get any helpful answers! Good luck with yours!!!

Just purchased a Cameo and every time I try to open the software it just freezes at the initialization stage! De Re installed blah blah! Even downlaoded latest Software! And when I use task manager to close my computer goes crazy and everything starts flickering! :-/ Please help!!!

You are the second person who has written to me in the past couple of weeks about this software problem. It sounds like there might be a glitch in the software. I would recommend you contact Silhouette America on this one.

Your Cameo should have come with a mat. As for the “Load media” …just use the button with Up Arrow on the front of the Cameo to switch to “Load Cutting Mat.”

Good luck!! I hope you get this straightened out, quickly, so you can start having fun with your Cameo!!

Hi Gloria! First of all I have to say you are great! I have seen so many great answers here that is crazy! I’m not sure if I missed it.. But i saw on one of your answers that you have been using the same mat for a looong time. A you mentioned, at the beginning the glue is really sticky.. But after a couple of uses .. Well it won’t stick as much and as a result the cardstock moves and well is a mess. Hahaha How do you do to use your mat for so long and not loosing the glue. Or better question how do I do make it sticky again?
Thanks so much!

Yes, I have been using the same mat for the past three years. When it loses its stickiness, there are a few solutions:

1. Wash it with warm soapy water and pat it dry. This will clean off the paper debris and often returns your mat to new condition.
2. You can also spray your mat with Krylon. It comes in a can and costs about $10 and will probably last you a lifetime. Be careful, though, the spray is a very fine mist and a bit messy to use in the house. Also, you don’t want to breathe it in.
3. My favourite method–the one I personally use all the time–is tape. I just put a small piece of tape on each corner of my cardstock and send it through the Silhouette. I don’t have any problems with little bits sticking to the mat and tearing. I know it’s primitive, but it works like a charm for me.

I hope this helps, Zabrinna,

Thanks, again, for visiting Globug Ideas. I hope you will come again soon!!

I just bought SilhouetteCameo, but so frustating that the machine couldn`t cut foam. I tried using blade 10, thickness 33 but the result still the same. Do u have any suggestion that I should follow? Thanks

Hi, Shazlyn,
First off, congratulations on becoming a Cameo-owner!! I must say that I have never tried to cut foam, so don’t have any advice to offer. I did, however, come across an article that recommends Blade 3; Thickness 33; Speed 1. It also recommends that you try simple shapes. I wish I could tell you more, but I hope this helps.

Hi, my wonderful hubby has just treated me to a cameo (after much hint dropping) as I have just had some quite extensive surgery and he thought it might cheer me up. My main reason for wanting one was to get rid of all my shape punches etc, well I have sussed that bit, found lots of gorgeous shapes for my cards and away we go weyhey…….. Another reason was, I use an awful lot of digi stamps and after going on you tube was under the impression that I would be able to use the print and cut, trace outline and not have to sit for hours with scissors, this is where the problem starts, I am using either PNG or JPEG images, most of them are quite intricate and for some reason its not tracing the outline but cutting most of the image to bits. I’ve had a look and changed settings, no change. One post I read said that the image would need colouring in in solid colour to get the outline. Pleeeeaaasssseeee help guys I wanna play with my new toy 🙂 Many thanks Sam

Congratulations on becoming a Cameo-owner! It was so nice of your husband to treat you to such a lovely gift. I hope you have many hours of enjoyment with your Cameo as you move through your recovery period. First off, don’t get rid of your punches. I still use mine for quick cuts like circles and borders. But, your Cameo can, most certainly cut around the outline of an image! Here’s all you need to know:

–Once you have imported the image you wish to use, click on the Registration Marks icon–it’s at the top right corner and looks like three photo corners.
–Next, click on Show Registration Marks and then click on the Trace icon…it’s the fifth from the right at the top. When the cross hairs appear, select your image. Now comes the important part—click on TRACE OUTER EDGE…and that’s it!!
–Print your image and then feed it into your Silhouette..that’s it!! You should have a perfect trace of the outline of your image!

Ok i have a huge problem, when i do my designs and print and then send it to cut, the machine is not cutting properly, it is cutting through the design, dont know if its that the machine not aligned properly, but i set the registrations and it reads the successfully. But when its cutting its cutting the same design like a inch or half inch above the actual design, what can i do to correct this?

1) the firs trouble-shooting step is to close Silhouette Studio, turn off your computer and then turn it on again and open Silhouette Studio. Sometimes the memory needs to be cleared and then you’re back in action.

2) if that doesn’t work, be sure you are aligning your cutting mat with the short line on the bar below the rollers. Also, be sure you are slection LOAD CUTTING MAT on your Camoe and NOT LOAD MEDIA.

If these don’t fix your problem, then you should call Silhouette America support team.

Oh, THANK YOU SO MUCH! If I were there I would give you a big hug. I am currently jumping up and down. Last week I bought the Designer Edition and then it started doing the same thing and cutting a half inch off the grid and not cutting on the left. But now that is all fixed. Thank you so much. Del

HELP! I got my cameo as a Christmas gift and used it successfully maybe 10-15 times. Today I went to use it and it wouldn’t turn on. Tried different outlets with no avail. Customer service is sending me a new power cord. Has anyone ever had this happen before? Is my machine defective or is the power cord known to be weak?

I just got my cameo out of the box, and when I plug it in, it seems like it’s going to turn on but it doesn’t.
It makes a small noise, the screen seems like it’s on but then it dies, after 2-3 seconds it tries again.

Congratulations on becoming a Cameo-owner! I have heard from a lot of new Cameo-owners lately, with a similar problem, and it turned out to be a defective cord. So, you’re probably right…unfortunately. 🙁 Your best bet is to call Silhouette America and ask them to send you a new power cord. They are pretty quick, so you should be up-and-running in no time!!

I just purchased a Silhouette Cameo a couple of days ago….What a wonderful machine this is. Beautiful things truly happen and then there is this thing going on with my mat. I load the machine as requested , line up the paper on the grid lines for my 12×12 piece of paper. Then into the machine it goes. The cutting starts…but too soon, as it is cutting before it gets to the paper. Now my mat has cuts in it before the grid line on the top.
What can I do to fix the machine from doing this?
My machine is also giving me some issues with the sd slot too. I have a new card 16 g that has been formatted before I started to use it. It shows the files there on the card and when put into the machine it says card error…it will not read and there is nothing wrong with the card as I put other files on this card with no problems…
Any ideas on what I should do would be great…
Thanks

Hi, Cindy,
I had the same thing happen with my mat when I first got my Cameo. The top of my mat got cut up, but I’m still using it, two-and-a-half years later! My best advice is that whenever the Cameo does something weird (such as this), close Silhouette Studio and turn off your computer–this clears the memory and gives you a fresh start. Then, turn your computer back on and open Silhouette Studio–everything should be back to normal. These should always be your first trouble-shooting steps. As for the problem with your SD slot, I didn’t even know the Silhouette Cameo had an SD slot–I thought only the Silhouette SD had one. I did some research on the Silhouette America site and a number of Silhouette forums, and no one has discovered an SD slot on their Cameo, either. I wish I could help, but I’m really at a loss. Perhaps a chat with the Silhouette America support team would be your best bet. I hope you get it all straightened out, quickly. Fingers crossed!! Gloria 🙂

I got my silhouette for Christmas 2012. I was so excited. I had been waiting to buy a cutter for at least 3 years and finally decided to treat myself for Christmas. It worked like a charm for almost six full weeks, then, suddenly, it quit cutting corners. I mean, any type: acute, obtuse. In some areas, it would just pull/rip the paper, in others, it would not cut completely through. I babied that machine. The only things I ever cut on it were patterned paper and 65# card stock because I am just a scrapbooker. Not any particular brand of paper either. I was truly amazed at the intricacy of the cuts. The last good thing I ever cut on it was “lacy shamrock” from the Silhouette store. The next “lacy shamrock” I cut looked absolutely terrible. I simply could not believe it. The blade was less than 10 days old! I changed it out 10 days prior because I had cut so much on it and felt that it should be replaced after a busy 4 weeks and I didn’t want things to start tearing. Nothing worked with settings, so I contacted Silhouette. They mailed a blade to me and I explained that I had already replaced with 2 brand new blades (I had bought extras when I got it). I replaced the mat too, just for good measure. I got the new blade, installed it and called Silhouette to walk me through tests. Even at the slowest speeds, the cutter would pull corners. The CS rep asked what I had been cutting, I told him. He then proceeded to tell me that I was using the wrong brand paper, or that I was shrinking the die cuts down and making them too small for the cutter to handle! (which by the way I did not). I was stunned. The cutter worked perfectly for weeks on all papers I used. He finally said to mail it back and they would replace it. It cost me $29. I got a replacement almost 2 weeks after they received my returned unit. The replacement is every bit as bad. I don’t know what to think. It almost seems like they stuck a new SN sticker on the back and mailed my old machine back to me! Although I am sure they did not (I hope). But here is one thing I noticed. The blade in the replacement machine is not like my others. On all of my other blades, the tiny white cap at the end unscrews, so that you can remove any paper bits; plus the hole around the blade is noticeably smaller. On the replacement machine’s blade, the cap does not come off. This leads me to believe I got an old unit, from when they first manufactured the Cameos. I had heard that some of the first blades shipped with the new units were bad. So who knows. I have spent so much and invested so much in this cutter what with a carrying case, a canvas cover, utensils, replacement mats, blades, and over $400 in die cuts. I’m just sick and saddened. I miss the machine that used to cut so beautifully. 🙁 Had I been smart and opened it as soon as I ordered it from Amazon, I might have been able to send it back to them to be replaced (I had 60 days from date of purchase). I cannot in good conscience recommend this machine to anyone. My last attempt is to buy a couple more blades and pray it cuts well. I am so bummed out.

Hi there! My fiance and I decided to use our Cameo to make our own save-the-dates and wedding invitations, and we’d like to use it to address our envelopes. I’m trying to figure out how to do that, because it’s a little bit different from a regular print-and-cut. Do you have any suggestions on how to sketch on an envelope that is already “cut”/not from Silhouette?

I recently did this with my daughter’s graduation open house invitations, but I used ready made envelopes and printed both the address (on the front) as well as the return address (on the envelope flap). Here’s how I did it (hope this makes sense): first, I measured the envelope, then I used the software to create a rectangle of the same size and place it in the middle of an 8 1/2 x 11″ page. I changed the settings so that the rectangle would print instead of cut, and I also set the registration marks to show. Then I sent it to my printer. After that, I manually (with a pair of scissors) cut out a smaller rectangle within the printed rectangle. Then I pressed the sheet of paper (with the rectangular-shaped hole in it) onto my cutting mat. Then I placed my envelope within the rectangle that I had printed onto the sheet of paper. It will stick to the mat since you cut the hole into the sheet of paper. Now just go into your software and type the address wherever you want it, using one of the single-line fonts (I used League Script, free from fontsquirrel.com). Make sure you are set to use the sketch pen, not the blade. The Cameo will read the registration marks so the text will print exactly where you want it. It really is easy, and if you have two cutting mats, like I do, it’s a quick job, even when doing 50 or more. Just swap one envelope out while the other is printing, type in the new address, and you’re ready for the next one!

Ok, so I’ve had my cameo for a little bit now and I do love it, however, there have been several, “I’m going to throw it out the window” moments! The issue I haven’t been able to resolve, (thanks mostly in part to this wonderful site!) is when I am cutting rhinestone patterns. I finally figured out where to set my rollers, the blade settings are what is recommended but it still doesn’t work the way it is supposed to. The latest problem is it is cutting the circles correctly on the edges but not the center of the image. Any ideas as to what the problem could be? Any help is much appreciated!!!

I am sorry to say that I have never done a project using rhinestones. So, let’s put the question out to our crafting friends. If anyone can help Christy with this problem, please use the comment section. We would BOTH like the answer to this question.

My Silhouette Cameo has a bad habit of ” if I am cutting out an intricate design the machine decides it has had enough and just stops working.. tells me to unload. I combat this by Noting where the cut ends on the machine and then delete the cut area on the screen I then send it to cut again, part of the design gets a second cut and that is because I cannot be more accurate. does this machine have a reset button.

Does your Silhouette do this with every shape you try to cut out? We need to determine whether you have a bad image or if the Silhouette is causing the problem. Try another image and if you still have the same problem, then your next step would be to shut down Silhouette Studio and turn off your computer. This will clear the memory and let you start fresh. If none of these solutions work for you, then you should contact the support team at Silhouette America. They will, hopefully, be able to solve your problem over the phone. Good luck, and let me know how it works out. Gloria 🙂

Quite often, malfunctions such as the one you are describing, can be rectified by following the basic troubleshooting steps listed below.

1) close the Silhouette Studio app
2) turn off your computer
3) turn your computer back on and open the Silhouette Studio app

Now that you have taken the steps to clear the memory, everything should now be back to normal. If it’s not, you should give the Silhouette America support folks a call. They should be able to get you up-and-running in no time. I hope it works out, quickly, so you can get back to some serious crafting!!
Good luck,
Gloria
🙂

Hello- I have just purchased this machine and ready to scream. I was able to cut a few things no problem. Now I try to cut something and it is only cutting half the image. I tried re positioning the image in the software. Closing it down and starting over. I don’t know what I am doing wrong. It seems so simple in the video’s. I think I have watched dozens of video’s on this machine before I bought this. I want to say that it is something I may be doing incorrectly? I am cutting vinyl for transfers. It cuts beautifully and want to figure this out. Can someone help?
Thanks

I feel your pain! I felt the same way when I first started using my Cameo, as did thousands of my readers! It looks so simple in the videos, right? Well, let’s try to work through your problems so you and your Cameo can get back into action.

The first thing we need to do is to confirm that your Cameo can cut a basic image from beginning to end–something as simple as a square. If it can do that with no problem, then let’s go to troubleshooting step #2…

Put your expensive vinyl aside and try to cut the image that is giving you trouble on a piece of cardstock. If it cuts cleanly on cardstock, then go back and try again on the vinyl. If your still having a problem, there are three troubleshooting tips…

— do you have the latest version of Silhouette Studio (2.7.6)? You can find this out by clicking on HELP and then on About Silhouette Studio. You can download the latest version free on the Silhouette America website (I suspect you do have the latest version, though).

— more often than not, this problem can be fixed by shutting down Silhouette Studio and turning off your computer; then, turn your computer back on and reopen Silhouette Studio. This will clear the memory and set the software back to where it should be.

If none of the above fix your problem, then you should make a call to the Silhouette Support team.

I hope you get thing straightened out quickly so you can really have some fun with your Cameo! Please let me know how it goes. I’m always here and always interested!!

Try restarting the computer as you described, BUT do it three times back-to-back to get a good reset. (Has helped me several times recently with several different programs.)

I got the idea after watching a TV story thread involving malicious computer code that only activated when the computer was turned on the second time. Don’t know if there really is such a thing, but doing the reset you described three times back-to-back has gotten me out of several jams!

Is it possible if you are cutting vinyl vs. using your cutting mat. Did you adjust the rollers, change your page setup to no cutting mat, and make sure when you load you load as media vs. cutting mat. I had that happen before and one or the other of the suggested changes were my problem. Hope this helps.

Please Help.
I’ve been cutting images with no problem. Al of a sudden while cutting the blade stopped, and just cuts a straight line through the allready cut paper. I do not know what to do. Please help

Well, that’s annoying! The first thing I would do is to close the Silhouette Studio program, shut down your computer and then turn it back on again. Sometimes the memory needs to be cleared and then you’re back on track. It happens to me every so often.

Also, make sure you have the latest version of the Silhouette Studio. You can download it from the Silhouette America site.

If these two fixes don’t work, then you should speak to someone on the Silhouette America support. But try them first and I will keep my fingers crossed.

I don’t know of any factory settings that might help. However, perhaps if you try calibrating your Cameo by doing a Print-and-Cut. This should line things up to zero, again. Also, be sure to line your cutting mat up with the short line on the far left of the Cameo.

I purchased the Cricut Deep Cut Blade almssbey for my Cricut Expressions machine because I knew I would be cutting thicker materials like chip board and thin foam. The standard blade is really not appropriate for anything thicker than typical construction paper. But, the Deep Cut blade won’t cut through my chip board even on the deepest setting. Cricut needs to be more specific regarding the thickness of materials it can handle and of the depths associated with different blade settings. There is way too much trial and error involved with adjusting depth settings.

Hi, thanks for the information. I am not a Cricut user, but I’m sure a lot of my readers are and this will be helpful to them. Adjusting the blade settings in all die-cutting machines can often be trial-and-error. As we get used to our specific machines, I think it gets easier…doesn’t it? LOL!

Hi, and thank you for your comment about the Cricut blades. I use the Silhouette Cameo, exclusively, because I really like the on-line library of images and fonts. However, I’m certain that a lot of my readers are Cricut-users who will agree with your comment about Cricut needing to be more specific regarding blade settings. There seems to be a lot of trial and error with every die-cutting machine. I guess it goes with the territory.

Hang in there, and have fun crafting. Thanks, so much for stopping by!

I have a silhouette cameo, which I’ve had a few months. Sometimes when I am cutting fine lettering, some of the letters get torn up. Its a new mat, and a fairly new blade. I tried settings of 3, 33, and blade 3. (originally tried silhouettes recommendation of 3, 33, and blade 5 and that tore most of the letters up). Would it be my brand of card stock? What is the best to use. It did well on other things, just the smaller finer lettering. Thanks for any input.

Let us pray!!! I got my Silhouette two days ago and have really enjoyed it thus far. Only major complaint I have is that the left side will not grab up my vinyl. I doesn’t lift up when I release the bar. What am I doing wrong? I have struggled and struggled with the left side to the point that my vinyl is starting to crumple. I have to be doing something wrong. Why doesn’t the bar release on the left side like it does on the right?

First, please accept my apology for the late response. My comments notification system went awry and I wasn’t receiving any notifications. It has been fixed and I am back in action! Yay!

Okay, I’m praying with you!! Let’s see if we can get to the bottom of your problem.

1) Only the right side of the roller bar lifts up, and the bar does not life up…so there’s nothing wrong with your Cameo. That’s good!!
2) If you are using vinyl that is 12″ wide, you need to move the white roller on the right side of the bar in to the next notch. It’s really hard to move, but squeeze the white roller wearing a rubber glove for good grip, and you should get it to cooperate.
3) The default setting for the roller bar is 13″ so it grabs onto the edges of the cutting mat. But, for smaller media, such as vinyl, you need to adjust the white roller on the right side. Just remember to move it back to its original position when you go back to using your cutting mat.

There are some really good vinyl cutting tutorials on YouTube that you might want to check out, too.

Hi, Nancy,
I checked out your assorted butterflies filagree set and there’s an easy way to separate one butterfly from the others.

Look at the tools down the left side of your Silhouette Studio. Now, take the one that looks like a knife (it’s right under the one that looks like an eraser). Just create a line between the one you want and the others. Next click on the ones you don’t want to keep and delete them. You will be left with just the butterfly of your choice.

you can also go under Object/Replicate/Fill Page while the item is selected. If this deos not work, right click hit “ungroup” then with your selector icon draw a box around the butterfly you wish to keep when all points are selected, right click again and hit group. Hope this can help as well.

I got a Cameo for Christmas….although we are in a shaky marriage at this point, I can see that I will love it once I figure out how to do things. So my questions are not with the operation of the machine but the software.

> Can you give me a simple step by step version of doing a cut file
> And then what I need to do for a print and cut file
> And finally, where do the Trace and Offset fit in on a print and cut file.

Thank you so much for your answers. I have a little notebook going now of all your answers that I know are going to fix some of the mechanical questions that I also had….you are dream for doing this. My cameo and I may yet have a wonderful relationship!!!

There is a bit of a learning curve when you first get your Cameo, particularly if you don’t have experience with graphic design programs like CorelDraw or Adobe Illustrator. However, there are some great tutorials available and they are well worth the few minutes you will spend watching them.

Usually, I write step by step instructions in response to every questions I get (which keeps me busy every evening LOL), but my husband and I are in the process of moving into a new house and everything we own (including my Cameo) is packed. This is Saturday evening, and the moving van comes on Monday morning, so you can imagine how busy it is around here.

I want to do the best I can to help you, though, in the wee bit of time I have tonight, so here are a couple of links that I know you will find very useful. Give these a try and if you still have questions, do come back. I’m always here for my crafting friends. By next week, I hope to be back in my craft room…sigh…I can’t wait!! Below are the links.Great tutorial on the basics of using your Silhouette Cameo: http://pinterest.com/pin/54535845458146233/

Hello! I am hoping you can help me, I can’t find an answer to my problem anywhere. My cameo is ok about half the time – it always cuts fine, but sometimes it turns the paper halfway and seems to get stuck while rolling in and out. It feels to me like there is very little contact with the roller near where the blade rests, while the other roller has a very tight grip on the far right side. Do you know of any issues with this, and any way to fix it? Thanks!

When you feed your mat into the Cameo, the left side should be lined up with the SHORT line on the very left side. You will notice there is a row of long lines and just one short line on the left end. When your mat is lined up correctly, you shouldn’t have any problems. Give this a try and then let me know how it works out. If it’s still giving your problems, we’ll try some other possible solutions.

My cameo is doing something similar to Rachel’s. It will cut certain things perfectly, but if I have a long cut down the left hand side, the mat starts to turn and the whole project it ruined. My mat is loaded as far left as it can go, the white rollers are lined up with the edges of my paper and the blue release lever is in the “down” position. I’ve even gone as far as trying to hold the mat in place when it gets to the troublesome cut, but the cameo fought back and won! I’m not sure what else I can do to prevent this..any ideas??? Thanks!

Just got my cameo and have used it successfully about 10 times. Went to power it on this morning and it won’t turn on. I tried unplugging and re plugging and plugged it into a different outlet that I know is working. I also ensured it the power cord was plugging into itself correctly. The company is sending me a new cord first to try out. Just want to make sure I am not doing something else wrong in the meantime.
abby

[WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ‘0 which is not a hashcash value.

Ahhh, poor you!! I don’t want to sound pessimistic, but I think you have a defective machine and a new cord isn’t going to fix it. I can’t believe that Silhouette America’s support team would put you through this agony.

Please let me know how it works out. I hope you get this settled quickly so you can get back to crafting!!

Just wanted to offer my apologies for some of my late replies. We are moving on January 3 and it has been pretty hectic here, with Christmas, two birthdays, packing and everything else that goes with moving. I’m usually very prompt with my replies. Things will settle down, soon!! Promise!! Gloria 🙂

I just had the same issue. Got my cameo for Christmas, and have used it a handful of times. Went to turn it on this morning and NOTHING! Customer support is sending a new cord. Did the new cord help you??

Hello! Even though I’m new to your site, ‘ve already to managed to fall in love with the advice and inspiration found on your blog! I just have a quick question about my Silhouette otrait blade. I want to turn the dial on it to adjust my blade cutting thickness, but the dial is just stuck! I’ve tried the ratchet cap, the hole in the machine, and even turning it myself! Nothing is working-please help! (the thickness is set on 10, so I can’t really cut anything right now…) Thanks for your help and happy holidays!

[WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ‘0 which is not a hashcash value.

First, please accept my apologies for taking so long to answer. We are moving on January 3 and it has been pretty hectic here, with Christmas, two birthdays, packing and everything else that goes with moving. I’m usually very prompt with my replies. Things will settle down, soon!! Promise!!

Now, to get to the problem with setting your blade: as you can see on your Cameo, it’s pretty straightforward, so you’re probably not doing anything wrong. I’m sure you have tried turning it both ways, right? Have you locked it by turning the blue handle to the right?

If you have tried all the obvious solutions and it’s still not turning, then your best bet would be to talk to the Silhouette America support folks.

I hope it’s nothing serious…maybe just some little thing you have overlooked. Fingers crossed!!! Please let me know how it works out, when you have a minute.

Very cute. I just got my cameo for Christmas and I’m still figuring thgins out, but it gets easier each time. Have you ever made anything longer than the 12×12 I would LOVE to see a tutorial. Like when you do a big tree branch or family name. Thanks!

Typically, anything longer than 12″ is usually vinyl. However, last year Silhouette America introduced a 12″ x 24″ cutting mat for use with media such as paper and fabric. Here is a great YouTube video that shows how to use it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq-ZiBdKUPg.

Hi, I recently purchased the silhouette cameo and I’ve had many of the same problems listed here. The most recent is the project not cutting as it is layed out on the computer screen. I was making numerous stencils, all working fine, then it started cutting them all about and 1″ higher then it showed on the screen. I’ve tried new file, different computer…. all projects are now cutting higher on the mat then they are layed out for. Suggestions??

[WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ‘0 which is not a hashcash value.

I have got the same problem:
After using the cameo for several month an more than 1000 cuts, two days ago the “pont zero” for the cutting moved about one inch up and a little bit to the left.
Is there a possibility to reset the cameo to the factory settings?
Thanks for any help!
Greetings from Vienna/Austria/Europe

I only got my Silhouette Cameo a week ago. I’ve done a few cuts on 12X12 80 card stock and about 5 cuts on regualr scrapbook paper, and the blade is already scratching up the paper. Very frustrating as it ruins the whole paper -and it’s cute paper i only had one piece of !!! =( I’ll have to clean the blade like recommended, but i really think there is a problem with it, so i’m now out the cost of a new blade and the paper…… Furthermore during three of these cuts the blade has cut above the 12 X 12 grid, onto the board itself, and one time slicing through it! The software shows the image in correlation to the grid, and my designs have always been within the lines, so I am not sure how or why the silhouette miscallibrates the demensions. Any advice to what i could be doing wrong, or is this a common problem others are having aswell? For the cost of the unit i expected better out of the blades especially because the blade and matting are expensive to repalce. And the amount of paper i have now ruined due to these problems are starting to add up.

Congratulations on getting a Cameo! Let’s see if we can get you to love your Cameo!!

First, can you tell me what you mean when you say, “the blade is scratching the paper.” Do you mean it has scratched the cutting mat? If so, that’s normal. Your mat will end up looking like it’s been through a major battle!!

You’re right about cleaning your blade. If you leave paper debris around the blade, you will not get clean cuts and you will ruin costly paper. Try cleaning it with a pin or a tiny paint brush.

As for the Cameo cutting above the 12 x 12 grid, onto the cutting mat: one possibility is that you may be putting it in the wrong way. Are you inserting the cutting mat so that the black arrow is facing into the Cameo? Is your paper lined up properly on the cutting mat?

If none of my suggestions help, let me know and we’ll try, again. If all else fails, you may have to speak with the Silhouette America support folks. I’m here, anytime, and willing to help! Let me know how it goes.
Gloria
:o)

Hi again, it’s ok I will try & keep it short just forgot to mention, along with the machine missing cuts, and jumping about randomly when I tried the double cut feature… when this happened I pressed the pause button and it would not respond! Also, if I have any success with a cut, I remove it once complete, carefully clear it from the mat and pop a new piece of card on the mat & back in to the machine and set it to repeat the same cuts (on the same type of card again) & even though the first piece came out fine the second piece will be a mess, when I have changed nothing. I can only use the email option to seek advise from Silhouette as I don’t live in the States. Thanks again for reading 🙂

When you press the PAUSE button on the Cameo, it doesn’t respond immediate. Rather, it finishes a cut sequence and then pauses. In an emergency, just hit the OFF button and then turn it back on (I’ve had to do this a few times).

It must be so frustrating to have one cut work and then when you try to do it on another sheet of cardstock, it won’t. The problem could be either that the blade needs to be cleaned or the blade tip has chipped. I guess, by now, you have read that Silhouette America was shipping Cameos with defective blades. You could have gotten on of them :o( The good news is that they are taking responsibility and shipping new blades. The bad news is that sometimes the second blade you get is also defective. I had three defective blades before I finally got one that worked…fourth blade was a charm for me. I’ve been using the same blade for a year, now.

Can you use the 1-800 number for Silhouette America? Are you in Canada? I hope I’ve helped, or at the very least, given you hope. I will be anxious to hear how it works out!
Gloria
:o)

Hi Gloria, I have had my new Silhouette Cameo for about 2 weeks. During this time I have divorced it, a lot!! And am now totally in despair. I will start at the beginning. The ‘first’ blade never cut well, I had to finish the job with scissors!! A heap of card stock later…I tried the double cut feature. Here’s where things got interesting. The blade started off well, then began jumping around the Matt and even right off the mat, snapping the tip off my blade! I emailed Silhouette & they are sending a new blade. Luckily I had a spare, so put that in assuming the 1st blade had been faulty & it started out great. Then, not so! I always test cut, & make sure the settings are good, proceed with cutting just one shape before continuing just to be sure, check that first shape, then proceed with the whole page of cuts. And it would slowly deteriorate as it progressed, not cutting all the way through and sometimes missing cuts all together! I emailed Silhouette again & changed the settings etc as they suggested. Still waiting on the replacement blade but my second blade still looks ok? Tip in tact. It just won’t cut clean or all the way through. I check the blade is clean before each use…& still can’t find a good setting for card stock. And am too scared to try the double cut feature again for fear if it jumping up onto the mat & breaking my 2nd blade. I am starting to wonder if my machine is faulty. And the blades! Or it could just be me? I admit I am learning the ropes, with a lot to learn. Your site has been the most helpful so thought I would see if you had any ideas? I have just updated my Cameo so the settings that were almost working before, have all changed. At first it was suggested the blade be set to 3 for med card stock. Now it says 5 for heavy card stock with no medium option? The next option after that is a blade setting if 6. Have turned the machine off & resisted the urge to hit it with a frying pan…now waiting for my hubby’s help to try again for some success tomorrow 🙂 Not holding my breath! The only joy I have had has been with printed very thin card. Sorry for writing a novel!! Thanks so much for reading 🙂 Just want to fall INLOVE with this machine!

Don’t sign those divorce papers, yet! We can work through all of your problems, together. Promise!!

Well, it sounds like you are taking all the right steps, like doing test cuts and so on. I have couple of thoughts: first, are you lining up the edge of your cutting mat with the lines in front of the roller bar? The left edge of your mat should be even with the short line. Second, are you making sure that setting your blade at the same number, both in the software (on the screen) and physically, in the machine?

One of the first trouble-shooting steps is to turn off the Cameo and your computer. Then, turn them both back on. This will reset the memory in your Cameo. This is an important step because sometimes memory gets garbled and needs to be reset. (My husband, the giant nerd, taught me this…and a lot more).

Don’t be frightened by the double-cut feature, I often use it and it does not cut the mat. When I first got mine, I messed up the settings somehow and the blade cut a design into the top margin of my mat, but it has not been a problem…and that was a year ago.

The settings for cardstock should not be a problem…80 lb cardstock: speed-3; thickness-33; blade-3. If you are using a heavier cardstock, you can first try a double-cut and, if necessary, turn the blade up to 4. Setting the blade unnecessarily high will chip the end of your blade, and you know what that means…time for a new blade!

If your NEW blade is jumping around off the mat, as you described, then it would seem likely that the blade is not the problem, but rather, it’s the machine itself. I would call Silhouette America, again, and explain to them that you have tried a new blade with the correct settings and are still having problems with the blade jumping around. This is not how the Cameo should work!!

Okay, so put the frying pan away and call Silhouette back!!! Let me know what happens and we’ll take it from there. I PROMISE you WILL FALL IN LOVE WITH YOUR CAMEO!!!!

I am going crazy with my new silhouette! Not only does the blade not work, but I am feeding 12×30 contact paper in and every time, the final letter is cut all messed up. I added one foot of paper so the rollers have something to grab onto but it doesn’t matter! I am hating this machine…

I am sorry to hear you’re having trouble with your new Cameo. It may not be much consolation, but many of my readers absolutely hated their Cameos when they first got them…me included! Luckily, we all ended up loving them, once we got past the first frustrating experiences. Okay, so let’s start with your blade problem…
–You might very well have one of the defective blades. The original blades were manufactured in Hong Kong and were defective–they are set at the wrong angle and simply tear the paper. Silhouette America ordered a new shipment of blades from Europe, which they began distributing upon request to people like you and me, who had defective blades. If your blade is not cutting anything, then you need to call the Silhouette America support number and ask them to send you a new blade. They sent me three new blades before I finally got one that wasn’t defective. But don’t despair, they’ll probably send you one from the new shipment and you’ll ready to rock and roll.
–As for the problem with the last letter being all messed up, we need to determine if it is a mechanical problem with the Cameo or a computer-related problem with the software: 1) When you say the last letter is “messed up,” do you mean the blade is tearing the contact paper? 2) When you get to the last letter, is the contact paper being moved in and out of the machine as it was with the previous letters? 3) Is the blade moving back and forth freely, as it did for the other letters? 4) Have you had this problem when trying to cut other words? My first suggestion would be to close the Silhouette Studio software and shut down the Cameo. This will reset everything. (Sometimes the computer’s memory needs to be cleared, and shutting down will reset the memory content). Next, try making your cut again. I know you’re probably ready to pull your hair out at the thought of wasting more contact paper but, hopefully, after shutting down and restarting, the problem will be solved. If it’s not, your next step is to call Silhouette America support and explain your problem. If they don’t offer you any feasible advice, the only other thing I can think of is to try to make your cut in two sections and see how that works.

I hope you will come back and let me know how this works out, Susan. I’d really love to know and I’m sure there are thousands of Cameo-owners who are very interested, as well.

Most of the time, the contact paper just moves around like the rollers aren’t holding it anymore. I left an extra 12 inches so the rollers would definitely have more paper to grab onto, but it doesn’t matter. ( The original contact paper was 25″ long.) It just loses control of the end of the paper and it moves freely (and cuts anywhere) when it gets to the end.

Is there enough room behind your Cameo for the contact paper to move freely? Or, is it possible that the contact paper is getting piled up behind the Cameo and the part that is in the Cameo can’t move forward?

Hi! To get your roller unstuck from the middle of the bar, put on a pair of rubber gloves to give you a good grip. Now, grab the roller and push it back to its original position.
Good luck!!
Gloria
:o)

My Cameo is cutting too high on the mat by about 6 inches.
I position my paper on the mat and it cuts above the line and cuts
through the plastic mat. Because it is cutting high, it is not reading the
registration marks.
Have I messed up some settings?

Yikes! I’ve heard of the Cameo not cutting exactly right when using the Print and Cut feature, and it’s always been a user error. I have not heard of the Cameo cutting six inches above the cutting lines, though. So, let’s dig a little deeper…

1) Are you using the Print and Cut feature? If so, are you following the instructions, carefully? (I’m sure you are, but I had to ask)
2) Is your Cameo doing this on everything you try to cut? If you haven’t tried to cut other files, it would be a good idea to do so to see what happens.
3) Did it just start doing this, or has it done this from Day One?
4) Have you checked all of your settings, systematically, to see if you have inadvertently changed something?
5) Have you tried shutting down your Cameo machine, to reset its computer? Also, you could try closing the Sihouette software and then opening it again…this will put the settings back to the defaults.
6) Are you positioning the paper squarely according to the grid on your cutting mat?

These are all the trouble-shooting ideas I can think of, at the moment. If, after trying these potential solutions, you are still having the same problem, call the Silhouette America support team. They will walk through the settings with you and, hopefully, get everything back on track.

Good luck, Sandra. Please let me know how it goes, as this might be very helpful to other Silhouette Cameo owners.

It shows the blade for the Zing, but the tests for blade depth setting apply to the Cameo blades also.

1. Visual check-hold cardstock up next to blade to make sure blade doesn’t stick out too far beyond the thickness of the cardstock or it will cut into your mat
2. You can also poke the blade through the cardstock to see how far beyond the thickness of cardstock it protrudes
3. Hold blade & cut through a folded piece of cardstock (double thickness)-only the top layer should be cut-there should not even be scoring on the lower layer.

To give you an indication of my desired cardstock thickness – with my blade set at 5 as using the technique described above – the blade suts through the card – but not the second layer below.

I just watched the video on how to visually set the blade depth. I would not recommend this method for the following reasons:

1) the Zing has infinite blade settings, unlike the Cameo, which has only 10 specific settings. So, Cameo users cannot dial up settings that might fall in between the 10 presets.

2) the blades in both the Zing and the Cameo (and other die-cutting machines) are much too minuscule for the human eye to accurately detect the exact depth for a sheeting of paper/cardstock.

3) the reasons the blade is cutting when you running it manually across a sheet of paper, but doesn’t cut when it’s in the Cameo, are a) because the pressure you are applying is greater than that being applied by the Cameo, and b) because the angle of the blade is very likely not the same in your hand as it is when it’s in the Cameo.

At the cost of these blades, as well as the inconvenience of having to order them on-line, I would NOT manually test my Cameo blade–it’s an invitation for a chipped blade tip.

Anyway, this is just my two-cents worth. Thanks for sharing the link and giving us crafters something to think about. I would love to hear other opinions.

I hope you will come back again, James, and let us know how you’re doing with your Cameo projects!! Good luck!!

My problem remains – i have purchased a replacement blade to compare and it cut through a 300gsm card on a setting of 10 (!) but no lower. Then it would repeat this cut when i tried it again. Frustrating. Any thoughts? thanks

Hi Gloria, sorry i ment to say the cutter would NOT repeat the cut at a setting of 10 on a card of 300gsm. I’ve so far had it cut 1 circle out of a 300gsm card stock… and thats it. not impressive. Where to next?

Hi, James,
I am convinced that your blade tip got chipped during the first cut on the 300gsm card. I also believe that you should have been able to cut through that cardstock with a much lower blade setting. Your 300gsm cardstock is equivalent to 140 lb. cardstock, the blade setting for which is 3, or 4 at the most. A blade setting of 10 is used for very heavy material such as canvass.
I’m pretty sure the tip of your blade is broken, James. You only recourse is a new blade. Let me know how it turns out!!

Hi,
I’m not sure if anyone has ever contacted you about a problem I’m having with the Cameo. I was having issues with the mat slipping so I adjusted the rollers. Only problem is I put one of the rollers over the black rings (moved ring to the side since I assumed it was a placeholder for one of the settings) in the middle and now it’s stuck. I realize now that those rings were not to be removed but Silhouette does a horrible job with telling you where to place the rollers for cutting. Setting rollers to 13″ what the heck does that mean? So anyhow, the roller is stuck on the bar and wont budge. Do you think this will be covered under warranty since there was no directions or warnings to not ever put your roller in the middle and remove the black rings? If they didn’t want anybody messing with the rings and putting their rollers to a correct spot on the bar then they shouldn’t have made the rings in the middle removable. I am finding that Silhouette is not so user-friendly.

I haven’t heard of anyone else having this problem, which is surprising. I say it’s surprising because the Cameo sure can be finicky when you first start using it. It does take a while to get the bugs worked out. Also, many of my readers have said that neither the DVD that comes with the machine nor the on-line manual, is of much help. I couldn’t agree more!!

So, let’s see if we can figure out a solution for your problem. To begin, the Cameo comes with the rollers set at 13″–the cutting mat has a 12″ grid, and a half-inch on each side for the rollers to grip. That’s where the 13″ come in.

As for the stuck roller, if it moved one way, it’s got to move back. Try putting on a rubber glove–this will give you a solid grip and you should be able to get the stubborn roller back to where it belongs.

I’m not totally clear on what happened with your black rings…are they still on the bar? If so, you should be able to set them back in place with the use of the rubber glove.

I hope this works for you, Jenna. Please let me know how it turns out. We may all learn something new from your experience!!

Hi. Really useful site. I received my cameo today. I set it up ok and did a test cut and then a few simple cuts. Then I thought I’d be clever and try to replicate an image. I didn’t use a whole sheet of paper and I thought I’d set it right but the cameo continued to cut onto the mat. I stopped it but have cut marks of two butterflies on the mat. Does this matter? Will it affect things in the future?
One thing, I’m not really impressed with the instruction booklet or dvd. They don’t really give enough info only the basic setting up etc. I’ve flicked through the manual but it would be good to see pictures or demos.
Look forward to your reply regarding the mat.
Thanks.

I’m glad you find my site useful! It’s great to hear that your are diving right in there with your new Cameo!!! Don’t worry about the cut marks on your mat–mine looks like it’s been through both World Wars, but still works like a charm!!

I totally agree with you regarding the Cameo instruction booklet and DVD…in fact, Silhouette America hasn’t put out much in the way of useful user guides or beginner’s tips. The best information I find comes from Cameo users, themselves. Trial and error seems to be the way it works with the Cameo. However, here at Globug Ideas, I do share every single tip I get from my readers. I also do continual research and post whatever I can find that will help Cameo users.

Thanks, so much for dropping by!! Hope to see you, again. In the meantime, have a blast with your Cameo!!!!!

Ok, so I am still frustrated with my Cameo! Ugh!! When I first received it the blade would not cut right and messed up about a half a roll of vinyl. They finally replaced the faulty blade after numerous calls and emails. I successfully cut two things on vinyl. Now I am back to square one! Same issue! Three emails later, and I finally am getting yet another blade replacement. However, the customer service makes me feel like an idiot! They send me all of the same things to try like I am not doing something right. Please help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, I can really understand your frustration!! I was ready to throw my Cameo out the window for the first couple of months. But, thankfully, there are solutions to every problem!

Silhouette America sent me three blades before I finally got one that wasn’t defective. I’m not patient enough for e-mail, though, so I always spoke to someone on their tech support team and got a quick solution.

It sounds to me like you have another defective blade. I had the very same experience…many times! You are probably doing everything right, so don’t don’t let them make you feel bad. In fact, they should feel bad for treating you disrespectfully.

I wish there was some magic solution that I could offer you, but I think you’re going to have to wait for the new blade and hope that you get a good one. Just for your info, the first blades that were produced and shipped with the Cameo were made in Taiwan and were all defective. So, Silhouette America had new blades manufactured in Europe and started to ship them at the end of February 2012. They may still be shipping the old blades–which would be pretty ridiculous–but, hopefully, they will send you one of the new ones.

Hang in there, this will get sorted out. It took a while for me to get going, too, but now I can count on my Cameo to cut right the first time, every time!!

Hi, Dawn,
You’re welcome. Sometimes we all need a good listener. Come one back anytime, if you have questions about your Cameo or if you just need to vent!!! I love to hear from other craters!!
Take care and be happy!!
Gloria
:o)

Ok, seriously frustrated now! Ugh! I got my new blade (3rd one) today from Silhouette. Same issues! It tears the vinyl and won’t cut worth anything. I called them again and they are sending out another blade, go figure! This will be my 4th blade. I don’t know what else to do. Please help!

Oh, you must be ready to tear your hair out!!! But, if it makes you feel just a bit better, Silhouette sent me three new blades, too (the one that came with my Cameo was defective). BUT… the good news is that the 4th blade worked like a charm. In fact, I’ve been using that same blade for the past few months and it’s making great cuts.

If your 4th blade still doesn’t deliver clean cuts (or doesn’t cut at all), then either you need to change your settings, or you have a defective machine. Try your new blade on regular cardstock (80-100 lb.), with the blade set at 3, thickness 33 and speed 3. If that doesn’t do it, Silhouette owes you a brand new Cameo!!!

Well, blade #4 came today, and I get the same results. It has been months since I made this purchase, and I have yet to cut anything successfully. The company treats me like I am stupid. I am now at a loss as to what to do. Any advice?

Oh, Dawn, I’m so sorry that you are going through such a hard time with you Cameo.

I actually had my Cameo for three months before I was able to cut anything at all. And, it was my fourth blade that final did it.

It may be that you are getting one defective blade after another, just like I did. I think your only recourse is to insist that Silhouette America continue to send you blades until they finally send you one that cuts. Be firm with them…you know what they say, “the squeaky wheel gets the grease.”

If you could just get one good blade, you would see how remarkable the Cameo is. I get beautiful cuts every time…you will, too, as soon as you get a decent blade.

Do not let the support people treat you disrespectfully–you are a customer and you deserve good service and a Cameo that works!!!!

Well, blade #4 came today, and I get the same results. It has been months since I made this purchase, and I have yet to cut anything successfully. The company treats me like I am stupid. I am now at a loss as to what to do. Any advice?

I know exactly what you mean! I have found that the Stamping Up Whisper White and Very Vanilla work really well. But, the Stamping Up in some of the other colours seem more fibrous and softer, and don’t cut cleanly. I have also found that the cardstock I bought and the office supplies store–the kind designed for use in your inkjet printer–are also too soft and fibrous.

As for designer cardstock, the kind that you would use for scrapbooking, I generally buy K&Company and have great success with it.

oh my gosh! i just started making car decals to sell and now all of a sudden my silhouette will be cutting fine but miss parts of the image! Could you help me out with this? My setting is speed 5 thickness 9 and on blade setting 2 on silhouette vinyl! HELP!

Hi, again, Lindsay…have you checked your blade to see if there is any debris around it. If so, clean out with a needle or straight pin I still think you might have to slow the speed down a bit from five.

thanks! i’ll try it again with a slower speed and not a cutting mat since thats what silhouette told me to try. Im just not sure what kind of vinyl I have since it’s not an oracl brand i dont think. its more shiny.

regarding the silhouette cutting blade problems i faced the same problem and i came to know that once we adjust the plaid several times the white part will be stuck inside that’s why the blade cuts half cut only but once you push the black part back the white part will popup out again and you can enjoy cutting again

Hi,
Thanks for the tips. I’m not sure, however what you mean by “the plaid.” Did you mean to say, “the blade?? Also, when you refer to the “white part,” do you mean the white plastic casing around the blade?
Sorry to be such a dolt, but I want to be sure I understand what you are referring to so I can benefit from your advice.
I really appreciate you taking time to leave us some much-need blade advice!!
Gloria
:o)

you’re a dear! Answering so fast… So, it’s day No. 2 over here with Mrs. Cameo & myself, and our relationship seems to lighten up rapidly 😉
I played around a bit with the settings and some different papers, and despite being far from an experienced approach yet, it seems I’m noticeably narrowing down problem factors and thus paper waste. Even managed to charme some really intricate figures out of the lady already, hooray! I guess we’re starting to co(o)pe(rate) 🙂

You’re right, the mat was way too sticky in the beginning, so I used some warm water and a little dishwashing liquid – then again it was too smooth, so I treated the mat with a dose of spray mont (repositionable glue), and now it’s just perfect!

And thanks for assuring me nothing’s wrong with my mat. I’m usually the total trial-and-error-type when it comes to dealing with tech problems, but not having any experience with machines like these I just didn’t want to risk ruining the gorgeous little diva on our first date 😉

So, I’ll keep trying and testing – actually bought the Cameo for pop-up-projects and paper theaters, so I can concentrate more on the designing part than on the cutting efforts. Starting to become confident this could really work out…

I just today received my Cameo and am *almost* completely happy with it 🙂
In my first trials I try to use standard printer paper – to save money on the highly likely crappy beginning results – and it didn’t work at all. The German software version told me to use a blade setting of 1 for copy paper (and a 10 for both speed and thickness – which now seems ridiculous to me), and all it did was scratching around and tearing everything apart. Needless to say I had a *very* hard time getting all those micro-sized paper remains from a *very* sticky mat 🙂

Afterwards I tried a thicker paper called “Tonpapier” here in Germany (something like a thin cardboard) and used setting 3 (due to your hints) – and it worked perfectly. So you suggest always using a 3 – no matter what material? Or have you ever tried (successfully) cutting “normal” copy/printer paper – and if so, with which settings?

Oh, and another question (sorry if this might be a silly one – this is my first die cutter, so I have no experience with them at all): is it normal for the mat to already show every cut on it after the first usage – and every cutting session afterwards? It’s not that the lines go throught the mat, but are visible and definitely palpable, so I’m just wondering how may cuts you can do with a mat (I already learned you should regularly switch the mat for a more evenly abrasion). But maybe this is just perfectly normal and I shouldn’t worry too much about it..?

It would be so kind if you could find some litlle time for getting back to me. At any rate: Have a great weekend!

I will do my best to help you fall *completely* in love with your Cameo.

First, when I said that you will probably use a blade setting of 3, thickness 33 and speed 3, that’s for crafters who are working with cardstock for hand-made cards, scrapbooks and other similar paper crafts. Sorry, I should have made that clear in my post. I guess I should have said that you will *rarely* have to set the blade higher than 3. Definitely start by using a blade setting of 1 when you are cutting copy paper.

Copy paper tearing:
The reason your copy paper is tearing up is almost certainly because your new mat is so sticky. Try putting a thick cardstock on your mat, then rub it well with your hands and pull it off. Do this a few times and your mat should be just right. Then, try make some large, simple cuts using your copy paper–squares, circles, big flowers, stars, whatever. See how these work out and then proceed to the smaller, more intricate cuts.

Scratches on your cutting mat:
This is perfectly normal. My cutting mat looks like it’s a hundred years old. Don’t worry about this, it just means that you blade is set properly because it’s not cutting through your mat. I have been using the same mat since November 2011 and, although it is completely covered with scratches, it continues to work like a charm. I’m sure it has a lot of good life left in it!

Did I miss anything, Karen? If so, just send me another comment or e-mail—anytime!! I am always happy to do what I can to help you out.